Ink Battling Saltwater
by Verozexistente
Summary: Englehorn/OC; Aurora Chastain,a struggling writer in the 30's follows her friend Ann Darrow on a voyage across the big sea to an unknown island. Along the voyage, she meets Captain Englehorn and proves herself to be something more than just a writer with writers-block, a brave woman who isn't afraid of getting dirt under her nails nor fighting with the captain.
1. Ch1, First Meeting

**Ink battling Saltwater **

**First Meeting**

Somewhere in New York, in a half shabby restaurant, Carl Denham realized that the hungry girl he had bought a dinner was the perfect for the role. He had found her. Carl leaned forward and said with a smirk. "Ann, I'm telling you - you're perfect. Look at you. You're the saddest girl I've ever met. You're gonna make them weep, Ann. You're gonna break their hearts." He finished his speech clearly satisfied with his smooth words. She was going to fall for that, he knew it.

Instead of giving in so easily, young miss Ann Darrow leaned back in her chair. She let a slight snort slip her lips before she answered him. "See, that's where you're wrong, Mr. Denham. I make people laugh, that's what I do. Good luck with your picture." She grabbed a few bread – sticks unashamed before she stood up. Mr. Carl Denham already knew that she needed money and didn't have enough for rent, let alone for food. That was why she had allowed him to take her to dinner then listened to him babbling about his great masterpiece, his movie that was supposed to be filmed in Singapore. Because she had been so hungry, she had allowed him. But now she was satisfied, filled with food and a couple of bread-sticks in her pocket. Ann planned to give them to her room-mate, Aurora Chastain, a struggling writer in the same situation as her, unemployed. 

"Ann? Miss Darrow, please! I'm offering you money. Adventure, fame, the thrill of a lifetime, and a long sea voyage. You want to read a script? Jack Driscoll's turning in a draft as we speak." Carl Denham said with desperate tone in his voice. 

Ann stopped. "Jack Driscoll?" She asked without a breath. The great writer. Ann had seen all his plays and Aurora was always talking about him and quoting his plays. Was it really him? Did she have the chance to talk with him and to tell him that she was dying to play in one of his plays?

"Sure, why? Wait. You know him?" Carl Denham asked. 

"No, not personally. I've seen his plays." She answered nonchalantly. Trying not to sound too interested. 

"What a writer, huh? And let me tell you, Ann. Jack Driscoll does not want just anyone starring in this picture. He said to me, "Carl, somewhere out there is a woman born to play this role." And as soon as I saw you, I knew."

"Knew what?" Ann asked. She didn't buy Carl's stupid melodramatic rants but what if it was Jack Driscoll's words?

"It was always going to be you."

Ann bit her lip. She was not always going to be stuffed with food like she was now, she and Aurora were probably going to be evicted any day soon. And this job seemed interesting, serious and it did offer her some security. Although it was the opportunity to meet Jack Driscoll that made her say yes.

"I have one condition."

"Anything you like."

"I want my room mate and friend, Aurora Chastain, to go with me. I fear that she will be without an apartment anytime this week. We both actually will be." She said and stared on her feet. Ann hated to reveal how poor she actually was. Without job, you was nothing.

"That's excellent! Is she also an actress? We don't have a stand in for the stunts. I didn't have enough time to get one." He excused himself.

"What stunts?" She asked him. Jack Driscoll was famous for his drama where the pen was the sword. She had never seen any fights or stunts in his plays.

"Don't worry, you have a stand in now."

"No, we're not. Aurora is a writer, besides she's not very similar to me, unfortunately, she has auburn hair for an example."

Carl Denham who didn't seem to have paid attention to the description of the writer waved that off. "Don't worry, we'll find a solution. Besides, It feels more real to use the same actress all the time, don't you think? If your writer friend get along she might help Jack Driscoll with the script. Who knows!"

Ann smiled a bit. Carl payed for their food and they both left the restaurant.

Carl opened his mouth again as he fetched a yellow cab. "We don't have much time, I'm already behind my schedule. We have to leave this night."

"Today?" She asked him.

"Yes, damn paperwork you know." He said and shrugged. Carl payed the taxi chauffeur and handed her a piece of paper. "Be at this place 7.00 pm tonight."

Before Ann had the chance of responding he was gone. She stepped into the cab with an uneasy feeling.

**:::**

_'She walked into the room, tiptoeing. _

_Afraid to wake the sleeping bear. _

_She opened the door and shut it again, trying to make as little noise as possible._

_Her heart was hammering in her chest._

_Suddenly there was a crack behind her._

_She turned around. Determined to fnmjmnmbghdfghooooefqsx'_

It knocked on the door. Aurora walked over to the door and took a look in the spy hole. It was the landlord. He stood there with an angry face and his arms crossed.

"Rent!" He called and knocked again.

She decided to ignore it. He could wait a day or so.

He pounded harder on the door. "Open up! I know that you're here!"

"There's no one home!" She cried back.

She waited a minute and peeked through the spy hole once again. The stupid man seemed to buy it. Aurora watched him leave.

The young woman put her ink covered hands to her face. The inspiration was gone. She hated that feeling! You could be writing with the inspiration flowing and then, with a flick of a finger it could be gone, replaced with the infamous and feared _writers block_.

"I will never write a real book, play nor a manuscript if this wont stop." She said out load. The empty and silent apartment didn't answer. Aurora's worst fear was if it turned out that her mother had been right all the time. That she would never be able to write a book, never be able to live of her writing. Her British mother had wanted Aurora to take over her sewing business, since Aurora never succeed to find a husband and get married. Not that she wasn't good looking, she was just a bit plain. With simple face features, green eyes and auburn hair. But her facade wasn't the reason all the men gave up. It was the fact that Aurora was cold, uninterested and sarcastically towards them. Aurora didn't miss them, she wanted to be independent and more importnatly a writer.

The door to her and Ann's apartment swung open. Aurora stood up.

"Aurora, we have to leave!" Ann ran into the apartment and retrieved her suitcase.

"What has happened? Has the landlord decided to evict us? Did the police caught you?" Aurora asked her worried.

"No no." Ann answered and pulled out a drawer and grabbed all her clothes and put them into the suitcase. "It's nothing bad. I got a job!"

Aurora's mouth fell open. Ann already had a job, didn't she? "Why are you packing then?"

"Long story, I lost my job earlier today but then a meet a gentleman who took me to dinner. He turned out to be a... guess what, a producer."

"You got a picture job?"

"Yes!" Ann turned to Aurora and suddenly gave her a hug. "It's going to be a block buster movie, Jack Driscoll writes the script. We're going to film in Singapore!"

Aurora gasped. "Jack Driscoll, _the_ Jack Driscoll?"

"Yes!"

Ann danced around happily and threw some clothes and her toilet bag into her already filled suitcase.

"Are you leaving me here, all alone to deal with the landlord while you're filming in Singapore?" Aurora had a lump in her stomach. They had promised to stick together at least during the depression.

"No! You're going with me. Mr. Carl Denham said it was okay. We're leaving today."

"Today? Doesn't that sound a bit rushed? He doesn't sound serious!"

"No it's not like that. He told me that he wasn't like _that_."

"You believe him because he _said_ he wasn't like that?" Aurora replied sarcastically and rolled her eyes.

"Listen, we don't have a choice! The landlord caught me when I came. He said he was tired of waiting for the rent. We have until tomorrow... then he's going throw our things on the street." Ann delivered the sad news with a despondent sigh.

"What?"

Ann took Aurora's hands into her own. "We have only one choice. We have to take this chance."

Slowly she accepted the situation.

Fortunately Aurora owned a big suitcase. She had place for almost everything she owned, her clothes, shoes but most importantly her books, ink, paper and her bellowed typewriter. It was a Woodstock model 5 from the early 1920s.

**::::**

Annstepped out of the cab followed by Mr. Carl Denham, leaving Aurora to handle the luggage.

"Mr. Denham, is this the ship we're traveling with?" Ann pointed towards a big and majestic ship in front of them.

"Ann how many times must I remind you to call me Carl and nothing else?" Carl said avoiding the question.

A man named Preston helped Aurora with the luggage. She got it out of the car and told Ann to take care of her own. Ann who seemed to be in her own world grabbed the suitcase and repeated the question. "Carl are we going to travel with that ship?"

Carl laughed nervously. "Not exactly, it's this one." He pointed towards a smaller, dirtier and rustier ship labeled as SS Venture. Preston whispered something into his ear as Ann and Aurora enjoyed the view of SS Venture, well enjoyed... might not be the right word.

A tall man with broad shoulders and a dirty once white captain's hat walked towards Carl. "I need the manifest, Mr. Denham."

"Ah there you are!" Carl exclaimed, ignoring the man's request and sounded as they were old friends.

The tall man didn't seem to think so. He made a face. Carl noticed this and changed his tone to a 'lets get down to business' tone.

"I'll give you another thousand if we leave right now." He said quietly.

The man rolled his eyes. "You haven't given me the first thousand yet." He answered with a normal tone. "The manifest!" He said again.

"Talk English, Captain Englehorn."

"Paperwork, Mr. Denham." 

Carl shrugged and suddenly remembered the presence of the ladies. He changed the subject in the speed of the light. "Can we talk about this later? Can't you see we are in the company of a VIP guest?" Carl gestured towards Ann. 

"Ma'am." The man said and politely touched the bill of his _almost_ white cap.

Aurora couldn't help herself but snorted loudly. The snort came instinctive, she was always like this to men. The captain noticed her smirk and gave her a quick glance. He had brilliant blue eyes and he wasn't so bad looking at all. Too bad that heprobably was aningratiating man, if he wasn't he could have been interesting**.**He raised a brow. Aurora responded with a sour face.

****Although Ann seemed to be flattered. "Ann Darrow." She said with a breathless voice.

"So, are you ready for this voyage, Miss. Darrow?" He asked.

"Oh please!" Aurora muttered under her breath causing the captain to glance once again.

"Sure." Ann answered, ignoring Aurora.

"Nervous?"

"Nervous? Why? Should I be?

Carl interrupted before Aurora could say anything else and went over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. "And this is Ann's friend, the writer, Miss... "

"My name is Aurora Chastain." She said and stared straight into the captain's eyes. She knew it was provoking for a young woman to look straight into a man's eyes and she liked the surprised look he returned. But he came around fast and offered her his hand.

"Very well, Miss. Chastain. I am Captain Englehorn." She noted his German accent for the first time.

Aurora suppressed the snort this time and eyed his dirty hand. "Sorry, I don't want your dirt on my hand."

There was a moment of awkward silence...

… Until Carl Denham started to laugh nervously. "What a lady, don't you think Englehorn? Better be careful around this one!"

Preston took Ann's luggage and headed up to the ship with her following.

"We're leaving tonight." Carl said determined to Englehorn. "We can discuss the money later."

"But I want the money now." Englehorn responded angrily and took a few threatening steps closer him. "You promised me!"

"Hey! There's plenty of other ships I can choose instead! If we're not leaving tonight, there will be no money." Carl said and turned to board the ship.

Aurora snickered. "You know, you can almost think that he's the captain of the Venture, not the other way around." She grabbed her suitcase and the heavy box with her typewriter and leaved him.

He stared after the cocky and annoying woman with a murderous glint in his eyes. How dare she, a woman, treat him with so little respect? He clenched his fists together and climbed on the Venture.

"Mein gott, frauen..."

**A/N: And so was the first chapter finished! Bellow you can see a preview of the next chapter, stay tuned. All I'm going to say now is; To be continued... **

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 2:

Englehorn came climbing down with a smirk on his face. He turned on the lights. "This will be much bigger than Miss. Darrow's room. Feel honored."

Aurora turned her head around and for the first time looked into the room. It was huge. And filled with...

"Cages?" She said out load.

"Congratulations on your observing."

"Am I supposed to sleep in a cage?"

"Isn't it obvious."

"Why?"

He smirked again. "We're short on rooms and you seems to be the least important person on this voyage. So yes, you're going to sleep here. Although it could be much worse."

"What's worse than this?"

"I could show you if you like."


	2. Ch2, Cages & Flying Typewriters

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Cages & Flying Typewriters**

Leaving the furious Captain Englehorn, Aurora boarded the ship after Ann. They followed Preston down narrow halls. The ship was actually surprisingly much better on the inside then the outside. Not bad at all.

"Do you know where Jack Driscoll's room is?" Ann asked Preston's back.

Preston shock his head. "Unfortunately not, Miss. Darrow." He continued on.

Ann sighed. They passed a half open door and caught a sight of Carl Denham and... Jack Driscoll!

"Ann!" Aurora hissed. "Look who's in here." Ann hurried towards her and peeked into the room where Carl Denham seemed to have a business talk.

"Alright. We might as well settle up." 

" You're gonna pay me?" 

"I'm not going to stiff a friend." 

"I've never known you to volunteer cash before." 

"How does two grand sound?" 

"That sounds great... sounds great." 

"Here you go." 

"Carl, you... you've written, "two grand"." 

"Thought I did. I'm sorry, let's just do this from the beginning."

Aurora raised a brow. "Is he leaving or what? Why is Carl writing a check anyway?"

"Hush" Ann hissed.

Preston sighed loudly, attracting their attention. "Ladies, we better get moving."

Unwilling they followed him. At the end of the corridor Preston opened a door, revealing a small room with only one bed, a wardrobe, a desk and a chair. "This is Miss. Darrow's room." The whole room had the size of a broom closet. Ann began to laugh nervously. "This is very small for _one_ person, there is only one bed!"

Preston nodded. "I know, Miss. Darrow, I can talk to the captain and arrange something for Miss. Chastain. I'm not sure if it's going to be as good as this but we will see what I can do."

"Great, thank you." Ann said and turned to Aurora. "You can put your things in my room while you're waiting for your room."

Preston gave them a slight nod and left.

**::::**

Later that evening during the dinner Ann and Aurora finally got the chance to speak with Mr. Driscoll. He turned out to be a charming unlike Mr. Bruce Baxter who was more interested in his mirror reflection than talking to, at least, Aurora. While eating the mysterious looking haggis Driscoll told them why he stayed at the Venture.

"You see, he delayed me while writing a 2,000 dollars check. Then I realized that the ship was moving. When I got out it was to far to jump."

Carl sat down beside Ann and butted in. "Then I told our dear Mr. Driscoll; I keep telling you, Jack, there's no money in theater. That's why you should stick with film."

Jack smiled an unhappy smile. "I replied; No Carl, it's not about the money. I love theater."

Carl snickered. "You know what I said ladies?" He asked them. Ann shock her head and flashed of another smile. "I said; No you don't. If you really loved it, you would've jumped."

Carl laughed loudly. He glanced sideways. "I'm afraid that I have to leave now but I have some unfinished business with our captain." He strolled away and sat down in front of the unwilling captain. Carl took his checkbook nonchalantly out of his jacket.

"2,000 dollars. It's a deal. Will you take a check?" He said without looking up while signing it.

Englehorn rolled his eyes and said with a sigh. "Do I have a choice?"

"No." Carl said truthfully got up, threw the check in front of him and leaved the room.

Aurora made herself eat more haggis. She was hungry and was happy for any food. Even if it almost _moved_.

Suddenly Ann leaned forward towards her and said with a low whisper. "The captain is looking at you." She smiled significant.

Aurora raised a brow, not wanting to play the same game as Ann. "With hate and disgust I presume." She said sarcastically.

"No." Ann said with and her honesty flashed in her large blue eyes. "He's smiling."

"Smiling? The man I recently angered is smiling towards me? That must be a bad sign." Aurora said and suddenly realized that she had been saying exactly what she thought. She covered her mouth with her hand and quietly cursed herself from being so stupid.

"Just because you snorted at him?" Ann asked and rolled her eyes. "That wasn't so bad. He's probably forgot it by now." She leaned back.

"It wasn't just that." Aurora confessed.

Ann leaned forward again. "What did you say this time?" She asked with a tired voice.

"Only that... when Carl Denham was bossy towards him I kind of... oh gosh allow me to quote myself; You know, you can think that he's the captain of the Venture, not the other way around."

Ann sighed. "That was bad." She said.

"I know it was not good."

"No that was worse than just 'bad'." Ann corrected her. "First you were rude towards him when he introduced himself, you didn't want to take his hand, then you degraded him. Men like to hear that they are good in what they're doing." Ann said matter of fact.

"Thank you for the information." Aurora replied and _this_ time _she_ rolled her eyes.

"He's coming towards." Ann suddenly hissed and leaned back in her chair.

Aurora felt a strong hand grip on her shoulders, with more force than necessary, much more force. She tried hard to not let even the slightest wince through her lips. It worked out so-so.

"Miss. Darrow." He greeted.

"Captain Englehorn."

"Miss. Chastain." He said with an icy voice.

Aurora didn't say anything else. She turned her head and stared into his icy blue eyes with a question look.

"Preston told me that you have nowhere to sleep. I promised to personally take care of that. If you just would follow me." He pointed in the direction of the door.

Aurora swallowed. An image of him throwing her out of the Venture was suddenly before her eyes. Pushing that away she stood up ready to leave.

"Perfect. I have my things in Ann's room." Aurora stepped out of the dining room with him following after. She turned right and suddenly felt his hand on her shoulder.

"You're going the wrong way, Miss. Chastain." Without notice he put his other hand on her other arm and turned her around.

"I can walk by myself!" She protested. He immediately let her go.

Satisfied she walked again but the Venture listed and she found herself thrown into the left wall of the corridor then to the floor. She looked up and saw him staring down at her, not offering his hand to help her up.

"You said you could walk by yourself."

"I know what I said!" Aurora got up and walked more carefully this time. They reached Ann's room and she took her luggage, aware of the fact that he didn't offer to help her again.

Englehorn took the lead. After a few twists and turns they reached a flap trap. "Mind the ladder." Englehorn informed her as he opened the flap trap.

Aurora looked down. It was so dark down there. She swallowed hard. "How am I going to get my suitcase and my other bag down the ladder? It's too heavy."

He shrugged. "Drop it."

"What?" She exclaimed. "I'm not going to drop my suitcase! And my other bag, do you know what's inside it? My typewriter! I am definitely not going to throw my typewriter down the hole. Isn't it any other way down to that place?"

"Yes it is."

"Why are we not taking that way?"

"This is shorter."

"_That_ was a good answer."

He ignored the comment. "Go down there and catch it when I'm throwing it down."

She hesitated but agreed. "Fine then." Aurora climbed down the ladder fast and missed a step. She fell down and landed on her back.

"Oh right, I forgot. There is a missing stick on the ladder." He added mischievously.

"Isn't it a bit late to tell me that?"

"If you just could watch where you are putting your feet."

"If you would've warned me in time."

"Let's not make that mistake again, shall we." Englehorn said and pushed her suitcase into the hole. "Watch out" He screamed.

Aurora had no chance to get away and the suitcase landed on her. She cried out and pushed it off her.

"Here's next!" Englehorn screamed.

"No, not the typewriter!" She screamed back and stood up. She managed to catch it in time. Aurora knew that if she hadn't she would've never forgiven herself. On the downside, she fell again on her sore back.

Englehorn came climbing down with a smirk on his face. He turned on the lights. "This will be much bigger than Miss. Darrow's room. Feel honored."

Aurora turned her head around and for the first time looked into the room. It was huge. And filled with...

"Cages?" She said out load.

"Congratulations on your observing."

"Am I supposed to sleep in a cage?"

"Isn't it obvious."

"Why?"

He smirked again. "We're short on rooms and you seems to be the least important person on this voyage. So yes, you're going to sleep here. Although it could be much worse."

"What's worse than this?"

"I could show you if you like."

She gasped. "No! This will be fine. At least I will have some privacy to write."

"Good." He said. "You can pick any of the cages. You just have to make up your mind first."

She stared confused at him. "Excuse me?"

His smug smile grew wider. "So Miss. Chastain are you a lioness or perhaps a chimpanzee?"

"Charming." Aurora made a face. After a few seconds she came to the conclusion that even if all the cages were dirty she would take the largest.

"Good choice." Englehorn said. "I think that cage might be big enough for your tremendous ego."

Aurora chose to ignore that comment. She took a deep breath. "But it's so dirty."

"There is a broom, bucket and mop in in the corner." He gestured towards the cleaning supplies. "For the rest of it, use your imagination." With those words he left her.

Aurora stood there for a while just listening to the engine with her anger. She took a deep breath and got the broom. The cleaning process was hard and boring. She swabbed the floor to remove the disgusting stains on the floor. She found a couple of boxes and made herself a desk with a chair. The only remaining thing she needed now was a bed. The solution was to break the lid of a long box and filling it with straw she found in other cages (the first box she had opened the lid of contained chloroform). The last thing was to use bed sheets and her coat as cover, for the pillow she picked a bundle of cardigans. When Aurora was done, she was exhausted but still didn't want to sleep.

The typewriter awaited on her temporary desk. Aurora couldn't resist the urge and retrieved a piece of paper. She sat down a bit afraid that her muse would still be gone. But the writers block seemed to be washed away by a wave of saltwater. The ink flew freely as her inspiration and she began to type...

_'Somewhere on a journey, far from home the captain steered his ship, looking and searching._

_He didn't know what he was searching for. But he knew that it was something. Something out there._

_The captain was alone. Not just physical, he had a lonely heart. _

_As the waves of saltwater hit his ship he hoped that someday he will have a company of someone on his voyages. Someone made of flesh and blood. _

_He was tired of his mistress, the ocean. _

_The lonely captain steered through the sea under the moonlight.' _

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 3:

Englehorn turned around and Aurora peeked over his broad shoulder. Jimmy revealed himself from behind a corner. With a despondent and embarrassed look on his face he started to fetch all the buckets. Englehorn gave Aurora another angry gaze and leaved them.

Jimmy watched the leaving Englehorn and after he had disappeared, he asked Aurora. "Did I interrupt anything?"

At first she was too out of breath to answer then she realized what he meant. "Not of that nature!"

"Sure." Jimmy didn't appear to be convinced.

"Jimmy is there anything I should know?" She asked him and walked closer as he hid his eyes.

"No." He said uneasy. "I'm just cleaning the deck." A mop in his hand confirmed his stating.

She snorted. "Don't try, Jimmy, your voice betrayed you."

Jimmy looked to his left, then to his right and behind. He leaned forward and said with a low voice."They are talking."

"About?" She had to drag the words out of him.

"You and the captain. Lumpy was quite impressed by you this morning. He and Choy have made a bet."


	3. Ch3, Dirty Railings & Death Threats

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Dirty railings and death threats**

Aurora had fallen asleep long after midnight. She had been able to make a start of a story. For the first time in many month was the writers block gone. Aurora loved the feeling of finishing the first ten pages, the beginning of the story was always the most fun to write. But she felt a bit embarrassed of the theme of the story. A sailor on a voyage, alone... She knew that the 'unnamed captain' in her story was extremely similar to the captain she knew. But she had no idea if the story was romantic, drama, tragedy, humor or angst. She guessed that she was going to find out as she wrote. The embarrassed feeling made her hide the scrip in the secret compartment of her suitcase.

The flap trap opened and a pair of legs was suddenly shown. The legs belonged to a young man with regular jeans and a blue shirt. He introduced himself as Jimmy.

"Miss. Chastain, I'm not really supposed to tell you this but... uhm... it's breakfast now."

She furrowed her brows. "Why shouldn't you inform me about the breakfast?" She asked confused. Was it really so bad? Maybe they didn't eat breakfast on this ship, it could be a part of a strange religion.

"Well..." He was clearly even more abashed than before. "The captain wasn't so interested in informing you... But I thought it was wrong to leave someone out." He kicked a stone on the floor, staring on his feet.

"Don't be so ashamed, Jimmy. You did the right thing." Aurora replied. This was interesting...

He turned to leave but stopped after three steps. "Miss. Chastain, don't tell the captain."

"Of course not." Aurora assured him. She opened her mouth once again before he started to climb up the ladder. "Jimmy, call me Aurora instead of Miss."

He glanced quickly at her and smiled shyly. "Sure thing, Miss. Chastain... I mean Aurora." Before he headed upstairs again.

Aurora stood for awhile staring at the spot where Jimmy had disappeared, she felt her anger bubble inside. He was still mad, she knew it. She clenched her fists together, the fingers itched, wanting to punch something hard. Or someone.

**::::**

Ann practically glowed this morning. She discussed with Jack Driscoll about her role when Aurora entered the room.

"There you are." Ann greeted when Aurora sat down with her oatmeal.

Aurora grunted something surd.

"You have straw in your hair." Ann pointed at Aurora's auburn unstyled hair. Aurora removed it and glanced with a sour face at Ann's freshly styled curls. Of course _she_ was perfect for this role... With her blonde hair and large blue eyes. With a sigh Aurora put away the harsh feelings and dedicated all her attention to the gray oatmeal.

As Jack Driscoll started to read one of his books, Ann leaned forward towards Aurora. "Why are you harsh?" She asked concerned and brought up her compact powder.

Aurora hesitated but came to the conclusion that Ann would find out anytime soon anyway. "The 'room' Englehorn showed me last night turned out to be a cage."

Ann raised both her brows in surprise. "Did you sleep in a cage?"

"Yes, I did."

A laugh slipped her lips. "Blame yourself, you angered Englehorn."

"He also threw my suitcase and the box with my typewriter on me." Aurora confessed making Ann giggle more.

"You better be careful, the Venture is not _that_ big. You can't avoid him the whole voyage. Just play along." Ann instructed.

"I know. But the sight of him makes me angry."

"You need practice." Jack Driscoll interrupted and put down his book. "Everything needs practice." He said wisely.

"Did you listen?" Aurora asked and completely forgot who she talked with.

"I couldn't help but _hear_ you two speak. I'm sitting 3 feet away." Jack Driscoll defended himself.

"Yes of course, you're right."

Jack Driscoll looked up from his book again.

"I meant the 'everything needs practice' thing." Aurora explained.

He nodded. "Looks like it's time for practice."

Aurora turned around and saw Englehorn enter. He headed towards Lumpy and his pots. Aurora did try really hard to resist but couldn't. When Englehorn passed, she brought him down to the floor with her foot, causing him to stumble. He fell with a crack. The whole room fell silent. Englehorn turned to who had brought him down and wasn't surprised to see Aurora's guilty face.

"Oops, Captain. You better watch where you're going." She said breathless with a small voice and ran out of the room as quick as possible.

Englehorn got up with a hiss. He looked around in the room where everyone's faces were turned to him. "What are you looking at?" He hissed at them with mortification. They immediately turned their faces elsewhere. Englehorn walked to Lumpy and grabbed himself a bowl of oatmeal.

Lumpy peered with his only eye and chuckled. "She's right captain, you better watch were you're going." He advised.

"Halt den Mund, du Idiot!*" Englehorn said and switched to his native tongue.

Lumpy raised his both hands in a peace sign. He knew that when the captain was _this_ angry there would be no point in arguing.

**::::**

The fore of the Venture bifurcated the ocean beneath. It was a majestic and a hypnotic sight. As Aurora watched the waves and fish shoals she thought about the hidden script. What would happen next? Would the captain search for and find love? Or just go into his own doom? Maybe he was searching after a treasure or perhaps adventure? The story drove her crazy. Usually she always had a plan for the character development and the plot. Not this time. The strange captain only came to life when she wrote. She had no idea what would happen next.

Seagulls shrieked around her and the engine roared. The sun was warming and only a few clouds were in the sky. A foot taping to the deck woke Aurora from her daydreams. Startled, she turned around and faced the intruder of her daydreams. Captain Englehorn, who else?

"You again." She said and wore a livid face expression and continued to hold it even if her heartbeat started to raise when she stared into his angry, icy, blue eyes.

"It's my ship." He replied simple. "I have every right be here."

"I am so sorry, _Captain_." Aurora said with her famous sarcastic tone. "What brings you here, if I may ask?"

"The rail is quite dirty." He stated. "Mr. Carl Denham commented on it and said that he didn't want to film on a ship without a clean and white rail." He rolled his eyes, clearly irritated by Carl's request.

"So?" Aurora said suspiciously.

"I happened to notice that you're the only one in the film team that's not working."

"And?" She asked with a sharp voice.

"You don't seem to be occupied with work and my crew is busy..." He smiled evil when Aurora understood what he wanted her to do.

"You're suggesting that _I_ should clean the rails?" She gestured towards them on her left side.

"Well suggesting isn't the right word..." He paused and tilted his head to the side. "It's more like an order. After all, I'm offering you a place to stay and food."

"You gave me a cage to sleep in, for gods sake! Do you call that 'a place to stay'?" She retorted angrily.

He lost his patience and took a few steps closer her. Aurora suddenly realized how tall he was compared to her 5'8, she guessed he was around 6'1. She backed straight into the railing in the fore. He shut off all her escape ways with his arms.

"You have been testing my patience too much for the last days. Do you know how simple it is for me to throw you off the Venture?" He hissed suddenly with a more thick German accent than usually. "No one would find out." He sneered. "You would just disappear into the water."

She swallowed loudly. "Alright, let me get the cleaning supplies."

A sudden scramble of buckets broke the silence between them. Englehorn turned around and Aurora peeked over his broad shoulder. Jimmy revealed himself from behind a corner. With a despondent and embarrassed look on his face he started to fetch all the buckets. Englehorn gave Aurora another angry gaze and leaved them.

Jimmy watched the leaving Englehorn and after he had disappeared, he asked Aurora. "Did I interrupt anything?"

At first she was too out of breath to answer then she realized what he meant. "Not of that nature!"

"Sure." Jimmy didn't appear to be convinced.

"Jimmy is there anything I should know?" She asked him and walked closer as he hid his eyes.

"No." He said uneasy. "I'm just cleaning the deck." A mop in his hand confirmed his stating.

She snorted. "Don't try, Jimmy, your voice betrayed you."

Jimmy looked to his left, then to his right and behind. He leaned forward and said with a low voice."They are talking."

"About?" She had to drag the words out of him.

"You and the captain. Lumpy was quite impressed by you this morning. He and Choy have made a bet."

"What's the bet?"

"It's not very nice." Jimmy looked away.

"Tell me, Jimmy!"

"If you two are going to fly at each other or just turn into something else..." He didn't finish the sentence.

Aurora covered her face in her hands. "Great, exactly what I needed! A rumor and a bet."

"I'm sorry." Jimmy said quietly and took his mop and bucket of soap water. He turned to leave, then she put a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait, can I take on of your buckets?"

**::::**

The cleaning process of the dirty rails was hard and sweaty. She washed away mostly bird's leavings but the worst was the deep – rooted dirt. She had no idea where it came from but she suspected that it was some kind of oil.

It wasn't until the sun had gone down at the horizon, she was finished. Her back ached and the shoes she was wearing didn't turn out to be the best. Aurora made a mental note to use her low shoes in the future and to avoid a pen skirt. With a sigh, she took off her shoes and leaned against a wall. Aurora watched the last of the sunset.

A door next to her opened and out stepped Englehorn. At first he didn't see her, but eventually he looked down to see her leaning against the wall with stretched out legs. He scanned the scene and raised a brow.

"What?" Aurora asked and got up. She put her shoes back on and continued. "I'm already done."

He appeared to be surprised. "I thought you had given up along time ago and sneaked away to powder your nose."

"Powder my nose with risk for my life?" Aurora snorted. "I recall that you threatened to throw me off the Venture if I didn't finish this. Have you already forgot?" She tilted her head and used the same tone as you would use if you talked to an unruly five years old.

He clenched his jaw.

She noticed that and made a comment. "Look who's got anger problems."

He sighed and leaned against the rail. With his eyes shut he unknowingly allowed Aurora to study his face features. He had a handsome face with chiseled features. His dirty blonde hair was still thick even if he probably was between 29 – 33 years old. Aurora had seen many young men lose their hair in their mid twenties. She also noticed that there was something with his overall appearance that was _extremely_ _attractive_.

She collected her bucket and swab. She threw the water over board and decided to leave the unmoving captain alone. When she reached the door handle he started to speak again.

"You're not done yet."

"Excuse me?" She asked but didn't bother to face him.

"The rail are still dirty."

She turned around. "Where?"

He pointed at the freshly made black hand prints he had left only 15 seconds ago. "Here."

"That's unfair! You made them now." She retorted and fought back the angry tears. Why did he have to make it so hard? "Why can't you just leave me alone? Don't you have to be at the helm or something?" She growled.

"I wish _you_ could stay away from _me_, instead of poison the air with your annoying..."

"Don't you dare to finish that sentence." She warned and stepped closer.

He chuckled. "Don't you warn _me_ on _my_ ship."

"Easily solved. Don't be rude then." She replied fast as a cobra.

"You started!"

She giggled suddenly and turned his last answer into her andvance. "Do you realize how childish you sound?"

All the color in his face drowned.

She used the opportunity to escape into the warmth. Slamming the door shut she ran through the corridor. From that day she made her decision, to never talk to him again.

**::::**

"Is the captain here?" Lumpy, the cook asked out load when Aurora entered the dining room.

She furrowed her brows.

"No, he's not here?" Lumpy smiled and started to clap his hands. Then the rest of the crew and some of the film team joined in.

She didn't know what to do and just stood there. "Why are you clapping?" She asked them confused.

Choy answered. "Because you put the captain in place when you nailed him to the floor. That deserves some credit. No one's ever done it without having to put his life at risk."

"Well, he actually did threaten to throw me overboard."

Choy chuckled. "There's no chance he will turn that threat into reality. You've survived this far."

Aurora smiled and sat down beside Ann and Jack Driscoll. Mr. Hayes joined them. "I'm just as impressed as they are. I heard what he did to you, the sleeping arrangements." He told her. "But Englehorn is not evil, he's just a very hard man. Even if I am impressed by you, I don't want to suggest that you should keep anger him."

"Mr. Hayes, with all due respect, I don't need your advise."

Mr. Hayes nodded, accepting. "Don't ruin the whole voyage for yourself if you keep bugger him."

"Don't worry. I will manage, somehow."

**::::**

That night she sat down with her typewriter again. Her captain on his mysterious ship started to live again.

_'On his voyages he had once had a special someone. But he turned her down for the sea, believing that she had betrayed him. _

_The lonely captain wasn't evil, he was just a hard man._

_He actually had a good heart. It was the good heart who told him to pick up the shipwrecked lady. Without knowing he at the same moment gave her the key to his heart.'_

Aurora smiled when she realized, romance was the theme of her new story.

TRANSLATION: *Shut up, you idiot!

**PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 4:**

Oh shit! Her knees became soft. She feared that she would fall. He knew that she listened to the conversation! This time he wouldn't hesitate about throwing her off the Venture. Aurora was sure of it.

"I must have dropped it earlier today." She said indeterminate.

He chuckled. "Do you wear pearls when you're working?"

He had a point there, admit it. "I guess I forgot it."

He seemed to buy it and changed the subject. "Do you want me to put it back on?"

Was he drunk or something? Since when did he start to act like a gentleman?

"Sure." Aurora said, deciding it should be better to play along even if it lead to him strangling her with her own pearl necklace.


	4. Ch4, What did you call me?

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Did you call me fag?**

The days moved on and Aurora who was a morning tired person learned to go up in the dawn. But even if Aurora got up earlier and earlier, Ann was always first to rise. She was starting to get nervous now, as Jack Driscoll had finished about 80 percent of the story, the filming was about to start any day soon. Actually in Jack Driscoll's small room, during the writing process, Aurora had hid herself from Englehorn. She and Mr. Driscoll had many interesting conversations about the script. As the gentleman he was, he allowed her to come with ideas for dialogues and character development. She even started to talk about her own story and listened to his part of view.

The time at sea had drastically changed Aurora's appearance. Instead of wearing pen skirts, white blouses and high heels she had gotten a pair of trousers and a blue shirt from Jimmy. He had assured her that the clothes were to small for him when she hesitated to accept. From then on she considered herself as a sailor, or at least she thought she looked like one.

The first morning she wore the clothes, she had received a lot of gazes and comments from the crew. Lumpy and Choy had made a few jokes about 'dressing as a man'... She ignored them. Usually she liked to be around them. They gave her respect and treated her as the other crew members. Englehorn was a different story, he had just stared strangely at her when he saw her for the first time in her new outfit, she helped Lumpy carry a sack of potatoes and just asked with a sharp voice.

"What?"

He didn't answer, just looked away. Lumpy chuckled and dropped his part of the sack.

**::::**

Aurora ate her breakfast, oatmeal (again) calmly one morning. Ann sat beside her and couldn't allow herself to eat a bite.

"Ann, I know that Lumpy's cooking isn't the best, but you have to eat." Aurora coaxed. "No offense, Lumpy." She added.

"None taken." Lumpy grunted back. He returned to the two weeks old newspaper.

Ann twisted her fingers. "I can't. I'm too nervous. What if they don't want me? What if they fire me?"

Aurora rolled her eyes. "They're not going to fire you now. Not when we've reached so far on the voyage."

"Just eat, Ann." Aurora told her when Carl bumped down beside her. "Miss. Chastain, I saw you cleaning the railings a few days ago."

"Yeah, I did." She answered.

"You did a good job but..."

"But?"

"It's not as white as I want it." He explained.

"So?"

"I want you to paint it. I can pay you if you want or even better, I can give you a place in the end credits of the movie."

Aurora sighed. She knew she had no chance against Carl Denham.

"Sure." She said. Englehorn had been right when he gave her the first task. She had to earn her place and the food she ate. But she didn't want to turn into some kind of slave for the film team.

**::::**

Mr. Hayes showed Aurora where she could find white paint and brushes. The paint smelled much and she became slight dizzy when she painted but refused to whine about it. Her life had been worse!

The filming had started. Aurora watched as she painted the railings not too far away. Ann's character had just met Bruce Baxter's. "Poor Ann." Aurora muttered under her breath. Just the thought of being the same room as Bruce Baxter was unbearable, let alone try to play _in love_ with him. She had never understood why he was so famous. She guessed it was his physical appearance. "Poor bastards." She said, this time referring to the whole film team.

"So the fine lady has learned to swear?"

Aurora threw some paint from the brush at Jimmy for startling her. He laughed it off.

"That was barely swearing. Haven't you heard what the other men barks?"

"I know." He assured her, still smiling. "But just look at you. When you boarded the ship you were a nice dressed lady, now you're a swearing sailor with dirty clothes."

"Don't forget the hair." She said. Right now it was hidden under a cap who used to have a color, about 50 years ago. "But I have to admit that I like this life. Since my old was so bad and unsuccessful."

"What did you do before you came here?" Jimmy asked her interested.

"I was a unsuccessful writer." She told him. "My mother wanted me to continue to run her sewing business I inherited after her death. It lasted a month then I sold it." She shrugged.

"What about your father?" Jimmy asked her.

She hesitated. Her father was a vulnerable subject. But Jimmy was genuinely interested, interested in her. "He left my mother before I was born."

"So sad."

"I don't think so." Aurora said sure of herself. "I mean. I never actually got to meet him. He means nothing to me." That wasn't true. She had been crying many times over him.

"Gottverdammich!" The growl came from the fore.

Aurora and Jimmy looked at each other and back to the owner of the voice.

Englehorn swore more in German as he tried to wipe the white paint of his hands. Apparently he hadn't seen the sign Aurora had put up. A packet of cigarettes lay on the deck by his feet. Suddenly Aurora thought of the word her British mother had for 'cigarettes', fags. In America did 'fag' mean something else and that had caused her to get into trouble when she was younger.

Back to reality and the fact that Englehorn had wiped of the paint from the railing, she saw red. "He destroyed my work again!" Aurora hissed, the last episode was still in fresh memory.

Jimmy suspected what was about to come and tried to calm her. "It's not worth it, Aurora."

"Don't tell me what to do!"

Jimmy immediately let go of her.

"Hey, dumb ass!" She shouted, walking towards Englehorn with the brush blazing.

Englehorn turned surprised to the angry woman coming towards him. This was the first thing he had heard her say since the icy 'What?'.

"Do you have to ruin my work,_ again_?" She put emphasis on the last word. "It's just like last time, you gave me extra work to do back then and you're doing the same thing again!"

"What?" He asked blunt.

"I'm sure as hell you didn't bother to clean the oily hand marks you left me."

"Did you?" He asked in the same blunt way.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, yes I did! It took me an hour." With her threatening brush she made him back two steps. "More job." She muttered under her breath as she stroked the remaining paint to the railing. The packet of cigarettes caught her attention again. All the trouble he had been causing her as he tried to smoke.

"So much trouble for a fag." Aurora kicked the packet of cigarettes off board as she spoke under her breath, remembering her mother's words. The wind changed the direction and drenched almost everything she said. The word Englehorn caught was 'fag'.

The color in his face drenched, left a gray shade. "What did you call me?" He asked suddenly with a livid expression on his face. "Did you call me fag?" He asked again.

Aurora furrowed her brows. "No."

"Don't lie, I heard you." He took a step closer with his right arm raised and his lips tightened. Aurora noted his behavior coldly.

"I have no idea of what you're talking about, _captain_. I just made a comment about your cigarettes and kicked them overboard."

"What does my cigarettes have to do with this?" The confusion was back.

"Can't you see it? They are the reason I said that." She toyed with him. Was he really so stupid that he hadn't realized yet? "Captain, you do seem to be stupider than you appear to be." With those burning words she left.

Jimmy had watched the scene with an open mouth. Aurora collected the paint and left both men. She walked to the set, wanting to speak to someone else, someone normal.

The film team were finished with the scenes for today as Aurora clamped into Jack Driscoll and Bruce Baxter having an argument.

"What do you think, Driscoll? Dialogue's got some flow now, huh?" Bruce Baxter said and straightened his hair.

"That was pure effluence." Jack Driscoll said sarcastic. 

Bruce Baxter shrugged nonchalantly. "I beefed up the banter." 

"Try to resist that impulse." Jack Driscoll told him. 

Bruce Baxter raised both his brows. "It's just a bit of humor, buddy. What are you, a Bolshevik or something?" He said, left and almost walked into Aurora.

"Watch it, chick!" Bruce Baxter told her sharply. She snorted in response.

Unknowingly of Baxter's and Aurora's quarrel, Jack said with a sad voice. "Actors. They travel the world, all they ever see is a mirror."

"All I've seen so far is a disgusting cage and dirty railings." Aurora suddenly said, making Jack to jump. "And I almost forgot: Captain Englehorn's angry face."

He smiled a bit. "What have you done this time?" He asked with a chuckle.

She made a face. "Do we have to talk about that now? Besides Goldilock is coming." She pointed at the approaching Ann.

"Sure." Jack said. "How's the writing going for you?"

Aurora released her hair from the cap. "Great, I finished another seventeen pages last night. I typed until I feel asleep." She informed.

"That sounds good. How's it with the inspiration, was it easy to write or just hard?"

"Surprisingly easy." Aurora said with a happy smile. "I'm up in 76 pages right now."

"I could take a look at it if you want." Jack offered her.

"I don't know, I don't usually show my scripts in a such early stage of a story." She replied, afraid that he might not understand.

"I understand." He said serious. "It can be very hard to show other people, especially early, scripts."

She sighed in relief and grabbed her paint and brush to continue the painting of the railings.

**::::**

"Gottverdammich!" Englehorn swore and dropped the packet of cigarettes out of his pocket. He had just been thinking about taking a smoke when he laid his hands on the freshly painted railing. Isn't it supposed to be a sign some where around? A look in the right direction told him that he had been blind, neatly hanging there it stood: **Freshly painted, keep off!**

"Hey, dumb ass!" A familiar voice shouted, the owner of the voice came walking towards him with the brush blazing.

Englehorn turned surprised to the angry woman coming towards him. This was the first thing he had heard her say since the icy 'What?' He admitted that he had been looking strangely at her. But the sight of her in the sailor outfit was unfamiliar. He was used to women in their unpractical and neat clothes, skinny skirts, high heels and their annoying behavior. Not that she looked bad in the new clothes , somehow it fitted her and her behavior was actually better than most of women. He actually admired her spirit when he got used to her iciness.

Miss. _Aurora_ Chastain, she was lucky to have such a beautiful name, stormed closer with anger in her eyes. "Do you have to ruin my work,_ again_?" She put emphasis on the last word. "It's just like last time, you gave me extra work to do back then and you're doing the same thing again!"

"What?" He asked blunt. What is the woman babbling about now?

"I'm sure as hell you didn't bother to clean the oily hand marks you left me."

"Did you?" He asked in the same blunt way. Did she remove it?

"Yes, as a matter of fact, yes I did! It took me an hour." With her threatening brush she made him back two steps. "More job." She muttered under her breath as she stroked the remaining paint to the railing. He stared at the back of her head with a blank expression.

".. a... fag..." She said angrily as she kicked the packet of cigarettes over board.

Did she really call him that? She was even more brave than he thought she was. Or just incredible stupid. "What did you call me?" He asked suddenly with a livid expression on his face. "Did you call me fag?" He asked again.

Aurora furrowed her brows, looking genuinely confused. "No."

He didn't believe her face expression. That woman was not just only rude, she was a liar too. "Don't lie, I heard you." He took a step closer with his right arm raised and his lips tightened.

Aurora noted his behavior with a cold face expression. "I have no idea of what you're talking about, _Captain_. I just made a comment about your cigarettes and kicked them overboard."

"What does my cigarettes have to do with this?" His confusion was back.

"Can't you see it? They are the reason I said _that_." She said, clearly enjoying the toying with him. "Captain, you do seem to be stupider than you appear to be."

With those burning words she left.

He stared into her back as she stormed away. Why can't he defend himself properly against her?

"Are we getting another bollocking from our beauteous Miss. Chastain?" Choy suddenly appeared behind him.

Lumpy chuckled and leaned against the freshly painted railing. "Or should we just start to call her 'the future Mrs. Eng..."

"Ich warne dich!*"

Lumpy peered with his only eye at Englehorn and elbowed Choy.

"We better get going, captain is speaking German now."

"You're leaning against paint."

Lumpy swore terribly.

**::::**

"Ugh! You smell, Aurora!" Ann exclaimed when she met Aurora in the small corridor.

"Do I?" Aurora asked. "I can't tell for myself, my nose is dead from all the painting."

Ann grabbed her by the shoulders and started to shove her to the bathroom. "I'm going to get you look like a lady again." She promised.

Two hours, lots of curlers, two possible outfits and make up later Ann took a step back to enjoy the view.

"I succeed to make a lady of the sailor."

"Funny joke." Aurora said dry.

"Thank you. I just made that one up." Ann winked and opened the door and handed Aurora her pearl necklace. "See you on the deck."

Aurora nodded, put on the necklace she struggled a bit with it (there was something wrong with the lock) and went down to the cargo space, her cage and dropped off her toilet bag with make up and accessories. She looked around. The cage wasn't so bad after all. Her temporally desk and bed was her own space where she could type down her strange story. She had given the captain a appearance, he had light brown hair and blue eyes... it had been so right, it fit him completely even if the similarities between Englehorn and the captain was obvious.

She blushed in the dark and reminded herself to hide the latest page from the script.

When Aurora walked out on the deck, she realized that it was a beautiful evening. The air was still and the sun was about to set. She heard music and walked towards it. In the fore were Ann and Jimmy dancing some kind of jig with people from the crew and film team around them. Aurora chuckled when Ann stole Lumpy's cap.

The happiness in the air broke when Aurora passed under the helm. She heard Carl Denham's slightly desperate voice.

"Captain, if we just could adjust the course, a bit."

"And where would we end up if we did that?" Englehorn asked sharply, pouring as much venom into his voice as possible.

"I have a map." Carl explained.

"Hallelujah, he has a map." Englehorn said with a dry voice.

Carl continued with a dramatic voice. "It's a map of a island that hasn't been discovered yet."

"If the island hasn't been discovered, there wouldn't be a map." Englehorn said. Aurora could practically hear him rolling his eyes.

"'Rediscovered' is a better word."

Englehorn lost his patience. "I signed up for taking you and your film team to Singapore and back. I'm not changing the course."

"If you just could look at the map!" The desperate tone was back in Carl's voice.

A few moments of silence until Englehorn simply said. "It's nothing there. Just sea."

"I've risked everything I had on this picture." Carl said truthfully. "You have no idea..." 

"No Denham." Englehorn retorted. "You risked everything I have."

Aurora decided to stop eavesdropping at this point. It didn't concern her. After all, she didn't have anything to return to. She could sail to the end of the world and not return, it didn't mind her. Aurora started to walk again, heading towards the group of dancing people.

"Miss. Chastain!"

She immediately froze on the spot. She was discovered, they knew she had been listening or at least Carl did. What if it was important information she had just heard. What if they planned to actually throw her of the Venture. Englehorn would like that.

"Yes." She forced herself to face them and decided to play dumb if they asked her anything strange.

Carl went down the ladder. He flashed off a wide smile. "Wow, what a change! I was getting used to see you in pants and shirts, dressed as one of the crew."

Aurora spun around playfully to show her whole outfit. "Thank you, Carl." She hated herself for playing along as a dumb girl.

He held out his arm. "I was just wondering if you would like to dance this dance with me." He said.

"I'm not sure if it's that kind of dance they are practicing over there." Aurora said dumb.

He nodded slightly towards the group. Ann danced a slow waltz like dance with Jimmy. "I think it's the right kind." He held out his arm, like a gentleman.

"Go for it." Aurora said and took it. She glanced up to the lonely captain, he looked back.

_The captain was alone. Not just physical, he had a lonely heart. _

_As the waves of saltwater hit his ship he hoped that someday he will have a company of someone on his voyages. Someone made of flesh and blood. _

She suddenly realized how much the captain in her story reminded of Captain Englehorn. Not just by appearance, also in his heart.

Choy started to sing 'O sole mio' as the last of the sun set. Carl and Aurora began to dance.

**::::**

"Someone's a bit lovestruck." Aurora said teasingly.

Jack jumped and a blush was suddenly visible on his always so pale cheeks. "Does that mind you?"

"Well, Ann deserve someone good. A good person." Aurora said and watched Jimmy dance with Ann for the tenth time this evening. "You seem to be a good person, not just a good writer."

"Thank you." He said sincerely. His blush did not go down.

"Why don't you ask her up for next dance?" Aurora suggested.

"No, dance isn't for me."

"Stop thinking like that! Otherwise she will take a liking in Jimmy. We don't want that." Aurora said with humor in her voice.

"So you think I should try?" Jack asked nervously.

She rolled her eyes. "Go and get your lady, Mr. Driscoll." The music stopped, people started to fight over the next song. Some wanted Italian style others preferred French.

"Wish me luck."

"You don't need any." She told him.

As Ann and Jack started to dance decided Aurora that it was time for her to go back inside. She was planning on typing more pages tonight and didn't want to fall asleep on the keyboard as yesterday. She headed back and resisted to dance with Simpson, one of the crew. He gave her a pretended hurt face, she just waved him off.

When she passed the helm again she recognized the deep voice with the German accent. "Miss. Chastain."

"What?" Instead of shouting like last time, she talked in a soft voice. She was starting to get tired and didn't want have a quarrel with him such a late hour. Aurora didn't need another hard job to do.

"Does this belong to you?" He appeared out of the shadows, holding a pearl necklace.

With a gasp, her hands flew to her neck. It was nothing there. She nodded. "Yes it's mine, where did you find it?"

"On the deck, right under the helm."

Oh shit! Her knees became soft. She feared that she would fall. He knew that she listened to the conversation! This time he wouldn't hesitate about throwing her off the Venture. Aurora was sure of it.

"I must have dropped it earlier today." She said indeterminate.

He chuckled. "Do you wear pearls when you're working?" He had a beautiful smile, she noted.

Englehorn had a point there, she admit it. "I guess I forgot it."

He seemed to buy it and changed the subject. "Do you want me to put it back on?"

Was he drunk or something? Since when did he start to act like a gentleman?

"Sure." Aurora said, deciding it would be better to play along even if it lead to him strangling her with her own pearl necklace. She made a mental note to scream as much as possible if he tried to. She turned around and felt his hands first push away some of her wavy hair.

"I want to apologize." He said suddenly as he set the pearls around her neck. "I asked... Lumpy." He admitted. "What cigarettes and 'fags' had in common. It's apparently British English."

"Yes, it is." She said and shivered as he locked the necklace.

She turned around. "My mother was British, I guess some of her sayings still haunts me."

"I'm sorry, did she...?" He let the word 'died' float in the air between them.

"Yes." She whispered. Tears threatened to fall as she remembered her mother. Aurora furiously fought them back and focused hard on retaining a normal voice. "Almost ten years ago." Aurora gave him a tired smile. "Apology accepted." She stated and walked by him, close. Her hair brushed past his shoulder.

_The lonely captain wasn't evil, he was just a hard man._

_He actually had a good heart. It was the good heart who told him to pick up the shipwrecked lady. Without knowing he at the same moment gave her the key to his heart._

**::::**

The story came to life as she typed the first letters.

_'She was not like the others, he was sure of it. She lead his way, like a foreign flame in the dark._

_It was because of her, he once again learned to love. _

_That it wasn't always rain, there existed sunshine too._

_But he was afraid. She was afraid._

_To let each other know.'_

TRANSLATION:

1* Goddamitt!

2* I warn you!

**PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 5:**

Suddenly, the whole Venture shook. Everyone in the room fell to the floor and looked up in the ceiling.

"What the hell was that?"

"I think the Venture crashed into something..." Jimmy's voice trailed.

Aurora hushed, they fell silent looking at her. "Wait for it." She said.

They waited three seconds. It was dead silence in the room. Until they heard it, screams, metal against stone and a specific horrifying wailing scream. "Something happened." She simply stated.

Mr. Hayes got up and rushed past Jimmy to get out of the room. In the rush he called for Lumpy, Simpson and Jimmy. "Go up there and find out what happened. I will go and find Englehorn. The others!" Mr. Hayes pointed at Aurora, Carl and Preston. "You stay here until we know what's going on."

They nodded with apathetic face expressions.

Mr. Hayes cast a last glance into the room, especially at Aurora until he left with the crew members.

"Like hell I will stay here." She waited for a few seconds until she spurted out of the room, ignoring Carl and Preston's shouts. Aurora reached the deck just in time to hear Jack Driscoll scream and scream.

"Rocks! There are rocks everywhere!"


	5. Ch5, Woman Overboard!

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Woman overboard!**

Since that night were Englehorn had found her necklace and acted with an overall difference, she stayed away from him even more. He was playing some game to take her when she was off guard, she was sure of it. Aurora could only imagine the horror and humility she would feel when he snapped her off again. What if he tricked her so that she started to act as the woman in her story?

"_Captain, do you think I'm beautiful?_"

She shuddered from the embarrassed feeling in her whole body. Just at the thought of it made her almost throw up. Aurora certainly didn't want to be a wimpy woman. As she focused hard on trying to get an ounce of damaged dignity back and to not think unwelcome thoughts, she buttoned the last buttons in her blue shirt and left her cage.

After the breakfast, still in the dining room/kitchen, Choy had asked her to cut his hair. "Do you want me to cut off the whole braid?" Aurora asked unsure, holding the large scissor in her hand.

Choy nodded. Who would have thought that under his hat, he had a two meters long braid?

"You sure?"

"Yes please, I want it off." Choy's braid snaked around on the floor.

"Okay." Aurora replied and raised the scissor even more unsure than before.

The braid loosened and fell to the floor. She ruffled his hair and began to cut it randomly. "I hope you like it short." Aurora realized that she didn't have asked him what kind of hairstyle he wished for.

"Anything." He only replied. Aurora sighed in relief. "You're a pearl, you know that?" He said jokingly.

"Aw thank you."

"How come, no one has put a ring on your finger?" Choy asked interested.

Aurora snorted. "Too independent, I guess. That's scaring them"

She decided to change the subject. "How come you didn't cut your hair before?" She asked him curiously.

"I saved it to the prettiest hairdresser." He said and winked into the temporally mirror in front of them.

She laughed. "You should have asked Ann in that case!"

"I can't. Miss. Darrow is busy with her film."

"Ha! You do admit that you thinks she's the prettiest!" Aurora said playfully. "Choy you break my heart." She wore a mask of played hurtfulness and fought hard to not start to laugh. In the mirror Aurora caught the sight of Englehorn stepping into the room.

"Is Mr. Hayes here?" He asked and didn't let her answer before he asked next question. "What are you two _doing_?"

Choy answered with a grin. "She's cutting off my hair."

"Inside?" He asked them.

"What does it look like?" Choy answered mischievous.

"Couldn't you go out on the deck? I'm sure Lumpy doesn't want hair in the kitchen."

"It doesn't mind me." A grumpy voice answered behind a large pot. "They're cleaning after themselves."

Choy rolled his eyes theatrically. "Captain is just jealous of me. He could also use a good hair cut." He said meaningfully.

Aurora blushed and looked into the wall, she regained the control of the redness on her cheeks. "No, he's not here." Giving him the answer to his first question, Englehorn left.

**::::**

A late night in the dining room. At this time of day, Aurora usually already had gone back to her cage to start the writing. Although, this evening Simpson had proposed a game in chess. It turned out that he was a horrible player who thought she cheated in every move. As they fought over the latest move, Carl and Preston spoke quietly in a corner.

Mr. Hayes came into the room and with a nonchalantly voice he began to spoke, addressing no one in particular. "If someone were to tell you this ship was headed for Singapore, what would you say?"

"I'd say they're full of it Mr. Hayes. I mean we turned Southwest last night." Lumpy responded in the same tone. But it was obvious that they spoke between the lines.

"Fellas, we're not looking for any trouble" Carl defended himself and backed to the door.

"No. You're looking for something else." Jimmy appeared behind him, cutting off Carl's only escape way.

"What are you looking for anyway?" Aurora asked with a soft voice. The soon-to-be rediscovered island that Carl had discussed with Englehorn came to her mind. "Is it an island?"

Carl jumped, as he had been stung with electricity. "How do you know?" He asked with a low voice. As if Mr. Hayes, Lumpy, Jimmy and Preston couldn't hear them.

"Uhm.. I... eh." She stuttered.

She didn't have to end that sentence. Suddenly, the whole Venture shook. Everyone in the room fell to the floor and looked up in the ceiling.

"What the hell was that?"

"I think the Venture crashed into something..." Jimmy's voice trailed.

Aurora hushed, they fell silent looking at her. "Wait for it." She said.

They waited three seconds. It was dead silence in the room. Until they heard it, screams, metal against stone and a horrifying wailing scream. "Something happened." She simply stated.

Mr. Hayes got up and rushed past Jimmy to get out of the room. In the rush he called for Lumpy, Simpson and Jimmy. "Go up there and find out what happened. I will go and find Englehorn. The others!" Mr. Hayes pointed at Aurora, Carl and Preston. "You stay here until we know what's going on."

They nodded with apathetic face expressions.

Mr. Hayes cast a last glance into the room, especially at Aurora until he left with the crew members.

"Like hell I will stay here." She waited for a few seconds until she spurted out of the room, ignoring Carl and Preston's shouts. Aurora reached the deck just in time to hear Jack Driscoll scream and scream.

"Rocks! There are rocks everywhere!"

Another voices answered. "Rocks on larboard and starboard!"

A crew member, Helmsman stood just in front of her shouted to Mr. Hayes. "15 fathoms! We have seabed!"

She avoided being caught by Mr. Hayes by hiding behind a water cask. She ran to the stern, determined to find Jack. If she found Jack, she would find Ann there too. She was pushed to the side as Bruce Baxter rushed past her. Where was his halo of heroic action now?

"Ann!" Aurora screamed. She almost crashed into Lumpy who threw out things from the Venture. Was it that bad? Did the Venture take in water? She became more determined to find Ann.

"Ann!" Poor Ann, she wasn't the best swimmer.

There she was. Beside Jack, dressed in a light pink nightgown. "Aurora!" She screamed back and held out her arms.

"Why are you up here?" Aurora screamed back to them.

Jack answered. "We don't want to be down there if the ship is going down."

Aurora looked around to find someone in the crew who might have information. She fetched Jimmy as he ran past them with hard ropes in his arms.

"What is going on?"

"We've brushed against rocks."

"Is the Venture taking in water?"

"Nope, Simpson just checked. Sorry, can't talk more. We need the ropes, in case the Venture starts to capsize." With those words he left them.

"Okay, you heard them. Go back down, the Venture is not taking in water!"

"What about you?" Ann asked horrified. "You can't stay here."

"I will be you in a moment."

They hesitated.

"Believe me, please!"

Jack nodded and dragged Ann down again. Aurora turned around and ran back to the fore. She saw the crew running all over the deck. They only stopped when Jimmy's voice was heard loud.

"Wall! There's a wall ahead!" He sat in the crow's nest. When no one seemed to hear him, he became frustrated and decided to climb down to warn Englehorn.

Bad decision.

The Venture crashed into the wall with full force! Jimmy who was already halfway down fell the remaining meters and hit the back of his head. At the same time started the Venture to capsize. The unmoving body of Jimmy rolled over the deck.

"Oh god! Not Jimmy!" Aurora threw herself after him as the deck almost became vertical. She slid over the deck and somewhere she heard her name be called. She didn't care. Jimmy had been her friend since she boarded the ship. He deserved a chance!

He fell over board and into the black water, still unconscious. Aurora swan dived after him. She crashed into the coldness, without a thought of anyone else than Jimmy. She disappeared into the dark.

**A/N: Why not leave a review? :)**

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 6:

Carter shook his head. "Why can't you understand, captain. It's too late, no one can possibly hold their breaths this long."

Englehorn nodded. Carter was right, he was wrong. Slowly he realized that he had been defeated. Suddenly, a memory of the night when he helped Aurora with her necklace floated in front of his eyes. The feeling of her skin against his fingertips... He could hear her voice. She called again, screamed for help. He thought he was going mad when Simpson tapped him on the shoulder.

"Do you hear that, captain?"

"Help!"

Englehorn redirected the search light and between the waves, he saw the heads of two people. "Row!" He barked at Simpson and Carter.

It felt like a dream where you're not going fast enough. "Row, goddammit!" He shouted again.

Simpson and Carter rowed faster.

And she was suddenly there, staring up into his face from the water. Englehorn had never believed in mermaids before but this made him doubt.


	6. Ch6, On a rescue mission

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**On a rescue mission**

Englehorn steered carefully in the same course, turning south west. The reason Carl Denham had made him turn was money, lots of it. It was getting dark and fogy, it was soon impossible to see where the Venture was going. But he didn't stop the engine, not yet. Englehorn was curious, would he find an island here? According to Denham's map, it was near. He had taken the Venture through worse scenarios than this and wasn't scared. He cast a eye at the compass and noted with fear that the needle span around randomly.

"Was zum Teufel?"*

He stared out through the window. The small sight was gone, replaced by fog. Instead he heard...

"Rocks! There are rocks everywhere!"

"Rocks on larboard and starboard side!"

He squinted with his eyes then widened them. It was suddenly there, the rock. Englehorn immediately turned to starboard to avoid the first one. A horrible noise of metal against stone was heard everywhere.

"Rocks!"

He turned to larboard to avoid more.

"Rocks in larboard side!"

Then back starboard. He tacked through the rocks with a close bitten face. The crew kept screaming about the rocks and his grip around the wheel tightened.

"Rocks! There are rocks everywhere!"

"Das höre ich!"*

The door opened. "Englehorn! You have to stop the engine!" Mr. Hayes rushed inside the helm.

"No not yet. We've been steering through worse." Englehorn replied.

"Are you mad? Stop the engine!"

Suddenly was Jimmy's voice heard. "Wall, there's a wall ahead!"

Mr. Hayes gasped. "Can't you hear, stop the engine."

"I can't see..."

Crack! Englehorn was almost hurled over wheel. Mr. Hayes fall over the spoke. He pulled it forward to: **Full Speed**.

"Are you mad Mr. Hayes? Turn off the engine!" Englehorn came to his senses when he saw it. The Venture speed fast to the wall. The ship would never survive if it crashed.

"Finally." Mr. Hayes whimpered and pulled it back to: **Stop**.

**::::**

Aurora swan dived after Jimmy. The water was pitch black and she couldn't see him. She started to feel with arms and legs after him instead. She had to give up and breath. Aurora dived and came up to the surface to breath again and again.

She started to cry after ten attempts. She was beginning to think that it was hopeless. She had to breath every 30 seconds.

A sudden wave from behind her and pushed her down under the surface. The water lit up. She could finally see again. To her horror she realized that Jimmy's body had traveled far and almost reached the slowly moving screw. Aurora began to swim faster, didn't care for breathing this time, she was afraid that she might lose him.

Jimmy was extremely close to the screw as it stopped moving and he began to sunk. Aurora's lungs ached, she gave up once again and left for the surface to breath.

With a deep breath, she dived for the last time. The light helped her spot him immediately. Aurora reached him and with a new energy kick, she pushed him towards the surface. Her lungs almost burst. The adrenalin gave her enough power to swim back to the surface.

"Jimmy, Jimmy, talk to me!" She screamed as she held him up and kicked with her legs furiously to keep them up.

He didn't respond.

"Oh god, no! Jimmy!" She sobbed. "Talk to me!" She demanded and felt that the last of her strength leaving her.

White light hit her in the eyes and dazzled her for a second. "Oh god, I'm dead." Aurora mumbled. "I'm floating at the bottom, unmoving and white as alabaster."

The light flicked. She heard voices.

At first Aurora wasn't going to mind screaming, she was dead anyway. Although, her mouth didn't want to listen to her mind this time. "Help!" She heard herself scream. "Help!" It was like she didn't belong in her body anymore, that she watched the scene far away.

The light came closer.

"Am I supposed to go into the light or not?" Aurora asked herself.

"Row faster, goddammit!"

Who was that?

"I see her, just a little more now."

It's real. She came to that conclusion when she saw Englehorn's face. He would never turn up in heaven or in another godforsaken place after her death. Deciding that he was real and actually in front of her in that boat, she shoved Jimmy closer.

"Take Jimmy, he's unconscious!" She pushed him more and felt his body disappear from her hands. She fell down under the surface once again. She kicked again and came up to breath again as a pair of strong arms lifted up in the boat. Aurora found herself sitting in Englehorn's lap, leaning against his chest. She wouldn't have left if it wasn't for Jimmy, Aurora crawled over to him and started to push on Jimmy's chest, hoping that water would come out of his mouth.

"It's too late, Chastain." Englehorn sadly informed Aurora as she became more and more desperate.

"No it's not!" She decided stubborn. She hit Jimmy again.

"Yes it is." He replied softly.

"No!" She leaned down and blew down air into Jimmy's lungs. She gave up and punched him again, it hurt in her hand now.

"Stop it, you're only hurting him." Englehorn said with more force as she started to hit Jimmy's chest uncontrollable.

"I don't care." She howled. And with a last strike, with both of her hands knotted together in a big fist, Jimmy started to cough up water.

"Jimmy!"

"Aurora?" He asked in a raspy voice.

"Yes, I'm here. I made it."

"Chastain, how are you feeling?" Englehorn's arms were suddenly around her shoulders. "You're shaking and you're bleeding in your head."

Unaware of his statement Aurora smiled a wide smile. "I made it!" She replied, staring into the pitch black sky. Darkness lowered over her. Her eyes rolled up in her head.

Darkness.

**::::**

Helmsman couldn't believe his eyes. That crazy Chastain jumped into the water after a crew member! Didn't she realize how dangerous it was now, just as the Venture was about to capsize. Was she trying to play heroine? Helmsman pushed that out of his head. He wasn't supposed to think, he was supposed to act!

"Man overboard! And Woman too!" He added, shouting, alarming everyone.

"What, Helmsman?" Mr. Hayes shrieked from the helm.

"I said..." He climbed up the ladder. "I said, there is a man overboard and a woman overboard too!"

Mr. Hayes redirected the information inside in the helm. He received a response and ran into the helm. Out came Englehorn running.

"Tell me where they fell!" He demanded to know.

"At starboard. One of them rolled down the deck as the Venture started to capsize. The other jumped after." Helmsman told him. "It's Jimmy and Chastain."

Englehorn suppressed his anger towards Helmsman (why couldn't he stopped it?) and scanned the ship and made a fast calculation. There were already two groups of men at larboard side, trying to make the Venture float again. They pulled in the anchors, slowly did the vertical deck return to the normal horizontal. Before Helmsman could disappear grabbed Englehorn him by the arm.

"You go up on the roof of the helm and light the big search light. Then point it at the spot where they disappeared."

A strange feeling rose in Englehorn's chest. A feeling of hopelessness. They could be dead, drowned by now.

"Carter and Simpson, come over here!"

They both immediately dropped what they were doing and came to their captain's side.

"Two people are over board, I want you two to help me release the life craft."

"Aye aye, captain."

Three minutes and 49 seconds later did the life craft hit the water. Simpson and Carter rowed and Englehorn checked the water surface with the small portable search light.

After two minutes of searching, both Carter and Simpsons wanted to give up. "Captain, it's too late. We better go back, the Venture is floating fine again."

"No!" Englehorn growled back. Not ever on his voyages had he lost a single man. He was going to keep the zero this time too.

Carter shook his head. "Why can't you understand, captain. It's too late, no one can possibly hold their breaths this long."

Englehorn nodded. Carter was right, he was wrong. Slowly he realized that he had been defeated. Suddenly, a memory of the night when he helped Aurora with her necklace floated in front of his eyes. The feeling of her skin against his fingertips... He could hear her voice. She called again, screamed for help. He thought he was going mad when Simpson tapped him on the shoulder.

"Do you hear that, captain?"

"Help!"

Englehorn redirected the search light and between the waves, he saw the heads of two people. "Row!" He barked at Simpson and Carter.

It felt like a dream where you're not going fast enough. "Row, goddammit!" He shouted again.

Simpson and Carter rowed faster.

And she was suddenly there, staring up into his face from the water. Englehorn had never believed in mermaids before but this made him doubt.

"Take Jimmy, he's unconscious!" She said and pushed the unmoving body of the young sailor towards him. Simpson and Carter dragged Jimmy into the life craft.

Englehorn reached out his hand for her to take it. He was surprised that her grip was so strong. Not that he ever doubted that she was a _very_ strong woman.

When she boarded the boat, she immediately crawled out of Englehorn's arms. Simpson and Carter started to row as she placed herself beside Jimmy. Englehorn stared as she started to push on Jimmy's chest.

"It's too late, Chastain." He sadly informed her as she became more and more desperate.

"No it's not!" She decided stubborn.

"Yes it is." He replied softly.

"No!" She leaned down and blew down air into Jimmy's lungs. She punched him on his chest again

"Stop it, you're only hurting him." Englehorn said with more force as she started to hit Jimmy's chest uncontrollable.

"I don't care." She howled. And with a last strike, with both of her hands knotted together in a big fist, Jimmy started to cough up water.

**::::**

Englehorn carried her unconscious body out of the life craft, Simpson and Carter followed with Jimmy. "Mr. Hayes, take care of Jimmy... Yes he's alive, Simpson and Carter got him. Make sure to keep him warm."

He walked fast over the deck, people stepped out of his way. "Miss. Darrow, go and get her warm and dry clothes." He instructed as he saw her standing on the deck with Jack Driscoll.

Ann rushed past him, holding up the door and went down to her room to get clothes.

"Where should we put her? We can't just take her back to her cage, it's too cold down there." One of the crew asked.

Lumpy grunted in his raspy voice. "Take her to the kitchen, I want to take a look at that nasty cut in her forehead."

"Someone tell Miss. Darrow to come to the kitchen with the clothes." Englehorn told a random person in the crew. Carl, Preston and two others from the film team stood up as he walked into the kitchen/dining room.

"Get off the table." He told them coldly and placed the unconscious body of Aurora on the table. Her lips had turned blue and she had pale white skin.

Ann turned up in the doorway with a bundle of clothes. She made her way through the crew. "All the men: Get out!" She told them short. They did as they were told. Lumpy disappeared into the kitchen area, busy with sterilizing a needle and other tools.

"Aurora, what have you done? You told me that you should be back in a moment." Ann said silent as she changed Aurora's clothes. She put the wet clothes to dry on clothes line in front of the fire. "You can come in again." She told the waiting men.

Lumpy appeared from the kitchen with a needle and some sort of sewing thread. "Okay, lets take a look at this." He said referring to the bleeding cut in Aurora's forehead. "I need to stitch this." He told them after a while.

Ann dabbed the wound with clean and sterilized water. Aurora stirred from the touch.

A problem occurred when he pushed the needle through her skin for the first time, Aurora's eyes opened and she started to twitch and turn. A voiceless scream slipped her lips.

"Hold her down." Lumpy instructed and pushed the edges of the wound together and started to sew it together as Ann tried to convince Aurora that she wasn't dead, yet. One man held her legs pressed to the table, two on her arms and Ann held Aurora's head still.

"Can you walk?" Ann asked the utterly confused Aurora. ("Wha... Where am I?") "I don't think she's able to walk by herself." Ann answered for Aurora. "Where should we put her?" She asked.

"Put her in the last empty room." Englehorn suggested. He suddenly felt very guilty over placing her in a cage when it actually existed another room.

"She will kill you when she wakes up, finding out that you hid the room."

"We take that later."

TRANSLATION:

1* What the hell?

2* I hear.

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 7:

"A woman with a gun..?"

"... I don't think she's a woman after all, look at her, wearing man's clothes and carrying guns... There must be some wrong with her!"

"... I've always suspected something..."

"...I don't want to get in front of her gun as she starts firing..."

"...Do you really think she will be able to figure out how to unsafe it first?..."

"..Or remember to pull the trigger?..." Snickering were heard.

"I think she'll just drop the Tommy Gun and just wait for Englehorn to save her, don't you think?" They grinned meaning to each others.


	7. Ch7, Defeat is only momentarly

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Defeat is only momentary.**

"Aurora?"

Someone dabbed Aurora forehead when she started to regain her consciousness. Memories of her under water experience flashed before her eyes. The sight of Jimmy, slowly sinking to the bottom. A flashing light. Carter and Simpson taking Jimmy into the life craft. The mixed feelings of hopelessness then the feeling of almost drowning and the relief when she realized that Jimmy breathed again. Aurora stirred and noticed that she was in a bed. The first thought in Aurora's head told her that all had been a dream, the whole voyage. She was waking up in her bed in the small apartment she shared with Ann. Aurora realized with sadness that she was back to her old life as an unsuccessful writer.

"Ann?"

"Yes, it's me." Ann's voice was filled with relief, why? How long had she been sleeping, anyway?

"I had a dream." She told Ann, still with her eyes shut.

"You did?"

"Yes. It was a dream about a voyage at sea. But one night, we crashed into rocks... there was tumult everywhere and my friend fell overboard. I dived after him and brought him up to the surface again. Just as I thought we both would die, I saw a light and it came from a life craft. Two people lifted my friend into the boat and..."

"And what?" Ann asked.

"I was saved by the very handsome captain." Aurora smiled at the dream.

"Oh I understand." Ann's voice was filled with laughter. Her laugh sounded like she snorted.

Aurora ignored it and continued. "It was a very life like dream, though."

"Want to know why?"

"Sure."

"Because it was real and Englehorn is in this room now."

Aurora's eyes opened suddenly, she sat up in the bed, scanning the small unfamiliar room after Englehorn.

She couldn't see him. "Where is he hiding?" She asked Ann.

"He's hiding somewhere on the Venture I guess." Ann told her. "He left when you started to show signs of being alive. He's afraid that you might strangle him in the moment you wake up."

"Why should I do that?" Aurora asked confused. "Sure he's been annoying and rude, but not enough for me to strangle him."

Ann suddenly appeared to be nervous.

Aurora decided to change the subject. "Where am I anyway? This isn't your room, I don't recognize it."

"Yeah, that's the thing."

"What thing?"

Ann bit her lip before she answered. "First of all, promise me to not go on a berserk rage."

Aurora nodded.

"Englehorn put you in a cage, right?"

Aurora nodded again.

"Well, it turned out that it was a room left... but no one told you because it has been locked all along."

"That son of a..."

The door swung open and in came a very alive Jimmy. "Aurora, how are you?" He asked with a wide grin. "I thought you would be sleeping all day."

"Don't test my patience." She said in a played anger. "You would be on the bottom of the sea right now if it wasn't for me."

"I'm very grateful for your heroic act." Jimmy bowed ridiculously deep.

Aurora smiled a tired smile.

Jimmy regained his seriousness and sat down beside Ann. "I'm very thankful. Mr. Hayes told me the whole story." He informed. "How you dived into the water after me and then kept me over the surface in minutes. I can't believe how hard that must have been, I mean there were streams caused by the screw and waves." He took her hand in his. "Thank you."

"I almost died." She informed them. "But it was worth it, besides you should have done the same thing for me."

Jimmy playfully released her hand. "Hell no!" He said jokingly. Ann laughed loud.

**::::**

"Ann, why am I dressed in your clothes?" Aurora asked as she got up from the bed.

Ann shrugged. "I grabbed what I could find. It was important to make sure that you changed your wet clothes to dry ones." She pointed towards a bundle of clothes. "They're dry now, but I fetched some other clothes from your suitcase too."

"Wait a moment.." Aurora said with a growing feeling of embarrassment. "Did someone of _them_ see me without clothes?" She asked horrified.

"No, silly." Ann rolled her eyes.

"Thank you." Aurora said truthfully and grabbed a pile of clothes. "Ann, you remembered my tweed pants!" She said happily at the sight of her favorite clothing.

"Thought you would need them." Ann shrugged uninterested. "I brought the knitted jumper too."

"Thanks." She muttered. "I'm so hungry."

"Lets find out if Lumpy made something eatable for lunch." Ann said with a wink.

**::::**

Choy clapped his hands when they came into the kitchen/dining room. Almost every man in the crew were there, eating lunch, they immediately dropped their forks and joined in. Some of the men stood up.

"Geez, sit down again." Aurora said uncomfortable.

Lumpy served her some kind of beef stew when she sat down. Mr. Hayes changed his seat and placed himself beside her."

"I'm very grateful for your achievement." He told her quietly. "Jimmy is an important person to me, like a son."

"He's lucky to have you." She said truthfully. "He truly looks up to you."

"You know what? I found him in one of the cages on a voyage about three years ago. He was wild as an animal, Englehorn wanted to throw him of the Venture."

"Into the water?" She furrowed her brows. So Englehorn did actually throw people of boats.

"No, not into the water." Mr. Hayes corrected. "Back to the dock. We're in France then."

"Oh."

He continued. "He still hasn't told me how he got there and why." Mr. Hayes leaned closer. "Frankly, Jimmy doesn't speak a single word of french. He wouldn't have made it, if I didn't have decided to take care of him."

Aurora took a bite of the food. "Hey, this is actually not so bad."

Mr. Hayes shook his head with a smile at her change to a much lighter subject. If you could call Lumpy's cooking light? "Bye bye, Miss. Chastain, I hope you will feel better soon."

She furrowed her brows. "Is it really that obvious?"

"You're still pale as a sheet." He left.

Carl attracted attention by standing up and saying. "Okay, this is for all in the film team, I'm happy to inform that we're starting the filming on the island today." He said and clapped his hands together. "This is the moment I've been waiting since I found this map." He retrieved it from his inner pocket. "Much better than Singapore, fellas."

**::::**

Aurora waved Ann and Jack off when they left. She stood in the fore, watching them disappear behind rocks. Carl Denham had been very excited about this day, he had practically danced around the deck when the film team loaded the life craft with the camera, film and lenses. Aurora had been quite silent as she watched them leave, something Jimmy pointed out.

"Did you want to go with them?" He asked her.

"I want to see the island, now that we're here." She said truthfully. "It seems like a waste to not see it after this whole journey. Don't you?"

Jimmy shock his head. "No way. It's probably filled with insects and bugs."

Aurora laughed. "Insects? Are you afraid of them?"

"No..." He changed the subject of their conversation. "Shouldn't you wear a coat or something? Aren't you freezing?"

She rolled her eyes. "Last time I checked, which was 30 minutes ago, it was 75.6 Fahrenheit in the air. And I'm not made of glass, you know!"

"I'm sorry, I know you aren't. You're the strongest woman I've ever met."

She blushed. "No, there are plenty of strong women in the world, and more strong than me."

"Come on, how many would jump into black water with dangerous waves and streams to save... me."

"Mr. Hayes would." Aurora said sure of herself.

"Yes." Jimmy admitted. "But it's different..."

She furrowed her brows. "Why is it different?"

"Because..." He was interrupted by a female scream. Jimmy looked startled. "What the hell was that?"

"They're probably filming a scene. Ann told me about it." Aurora remembered.

A horrifying growl filled the air.

Jimmy gasped. "I don't know what she told you but that doesn't sound like Ann."

"No, that's not Ann. That is something else." They looked at each other then behind them, at the helm where Mr. Hayes had gotten out with his binocular.

The terrifying growl was heard once again, this time though, it appeared to be closer.

**::::**

"Chastain, do you know how to use weapons?" Mr. Hayes asked her as they walked down the corridor.

"No, why are you asking?" She lied to him, still following Mr. Hayes. Well it was a half lie, since she had once fired a gun.

He unlocked a door to a room she had never been inside. Mr. Hayes stepped aside to let her enter the room first. She gasped. It was filled with weapons from top to bottom.

"Because you've proven yourself to be a worthy companion." He explained. "I know I can trust you."

"Oh." She simply answered.

"This is a German Gewehr 98." He pointed towards the the rifle like weapons, hanging on the walls. "You can shot five shots without reloading." He showed her how to reload, unsafe and safe the Gewehr 98.

"Should I carry that?" She asked. It seemed so heavy.

"No, you need more chances to hit than five." Mr. Hayes said and opened a chest. "Here, look." He mentioned her to step forward and look into the chest. Inside where much shorter weapons with round magazines.

"What are those called?" She asked. Aurora recognized them from Gangster movies she had seen back home in New York.

"American Thompson submachine guns."

The door opened. "Also known as: "Trench Broom"" A grumpy voice said behind her. Aurora jumped. But Lumpy continued. ""Trench Sweeper", "Chicago Typewriter", "Chicago Piano", "Chicago Style", and "chopper"." He finished off melodramatic.

Mr. Hayes rolled his eyes. "You can shot 50 shots with these without reloading." He informed Aurora. She learned how to aim, reload, safe and unsafe the Tommy Gun. The weapon was heavy and so was the ammo she carried in a shoulder bag. She felt strange holding it, it was a twisted feeling of power.

"Do you remember what I told you, Chastain?" Mr. Hayes asked. He held a Tommy Gun as well and a similar shoulder bag with ammo.

"Yes, Mr. Hayes." She assured him.

"Don't let me down."

"I will not."

Lumpy grunted and grabbed the Gewehr 98. "It might be old but it serves me well." He said stroking the Gewehr 98 like a pet.

Mr. Hayes opened the door to let the rest of the crew take weapons. "Follow me, Chastain." He instructed Aurora. As she walked after him she passed almost every man in the crew. They stared strangely on her, just like the first day she had wore her new (Jimmy's old) clothes. A few disapproving mutterings were heard.

"A woman with a gun..?"

"... I don't think she's a woman after all, look at her, wearing man's clothes and carrying guns... There must be some wrong with her!"

"... I've always suspected something..."

"...I don't want to get in front of her gun as she starts firing..."

"...Do you really think she will be able to figure out how to unsafe it first?..."

"..Or remember to pull the trigger?..." Snickering were heard.

"I think she'll just drop the Tommy Gun and just wait for Englehorn to save her, don't you think?" They grinned meaning to each others.

Aurora ignored them and followed Mr. Hayes. She held her lips pressed together tightly. It was when they reached the desk she started speaking.

"Are you sure of this, Mr. Hayes?" She said unsure of herself. "You heard them, didn't you?"

He snorted. "No one of them should have jumped after Jimmy when he fell off the Venture."

Lumpy walked past them and started to release the S.S. Venture life crafts. "Ignore them, Chastain, they are only cowards."

"Mr. Hayes, have you arranged the weapons for the crew?" A voice with a German accent said behind her. Aurora closed her eyes, this is it, this far but not longer. Englehorn were probably going to snatch the Tommy Gun from her, telling her that guns didn't belong in the hands of women.

"Yes, Englehorn." Mr. Hayes answered, unaware of Aurora's vagueness.

Englehorn came into her sight. "So, Chastain, do you know how to use the Thompson?" He asked her, looking straight into her frightened eyes.

She pulled herself together. "Mr. Hayes told me how to handle all of the weapons." She replied with a stern voice.

"Have you ever fired a gun?" He continued asking.

She sighed. There was no point in lying to _him_. "Once, it was a Smith & Wesson.."

He seemed to be surprised. "Really?"

"Don't ask."

He didn't, he just made a comment. "You never stop to surprise."

She rolled her eyes. "Just because I'm a woman doesn't mean I'm powdering my nose all day long." She said, using his own words from before.

The crew divided into small groups to fit in the boats. Aurora was placed in the first boat to leave with Mr. Hayes, Lumpy and Englehorn among a few others. She knew Jimmy was in the second boat. Mr. Hayes had disapproved the fact that Jimmy was going too but didn't say anything out load. They rowed fast and reached the island in no time. Mr. Hayes tossed the rope to bind the boat to the rocks to a crew member and gave Aurora a sign to follow him. It had started to rain.

Suddenly they heard Ann's scream again. It was very close now.

"Ann!" Aurora said out load and walked faster, she rounded Mr. Hayes and picked up the same walking pace as Englehorn.

"I think I should be walking before you so I can warn you if anything happens." He said, holding out an arm to stop her.

She rolled her eyes angrily. "This isn't the right moment to play hero, Englehorn." He hesitated, she sighed heavily, Aurora rounded his arm and started to walk again.

As they went farther into the island she started to hear...

"...Is that music?" She asked confused.

"Yes, it is some kind of drums there." Englehorn responded. They rounded the last rock, the rain shattered the light from the sun and for a moment they were dazzled. And startled.

It was chaos everywhere. The whole film team seemed to have angered natives. The natives shouted and screamed in their language as they fought with a few men in the film team. Some of them were dead, others were soon to be.

Carl Denham was one of them. His head was forced to lay on a rock as a native slowly raised the bloody stick. Englehorn finally came to his senses, reached for his Luger P08 and pulled the trigger.

At the same time had Aurora scanned the area after Ann and found her held down by two natives. She took a deep breath, unsafe the Tommy Gun and aimed carefully. The sound from the Tommy Gun spitting out bullets were something she would late forget. The natives, holding down Ann fell to the ground, dead. Aurora decided to take a few more down and shot the natives, surrounding Ann.

Aurora stopped, managed to safe the Tommy Gun with a increasing feeling of sickness for herself. She had killed so many humans in the blink of an eye. It came smoke from the pipe. Aurora heard screams, some from children, and the sound of terrified running people. She locked up again, the natives were gone except for an old woman with white hair and a complicated piece of clothing of braided... hair? She wore a crown of skulls and spoke in her own language.

The old woman walked towards Aurora and Aurora took a few steps back. _"... Maga crines cum ardentibus... maga crines cum ardentibus..."_ She chanted, it sounded like a spell of some sort.

Lumpy ran into the scene, shoting beside her, not wanting to shot an elderly woman. "Get away from her, you sick witch!" His Gewehr 98 stopped working, something was suddenly stuck in the pipe. He swore loudly.

The witch woman ignored him and continued walking towards Aurora with her chanting. She seemed to be unaffected by the sound of the bullets, not scared like her fellow countrymen. Aurora backed straight into the wall of the rock behind her. The witch was only five meters away when Aurora started to fumble with her weapon. She heard Englehorn on her right side, 10 meters from her, reloading his Luger P08.

A shot was heard as the witch reached out for her. She leaned her back on the rock with her eyes glued to the hideous witch's milky eyes. She noticed that she wore a necklace of teeth and her clothing was really made of human hair! The bullet missed the witch and Englehorn pulled the trigger once again. He missed again.

The witch's claw hand grabbed a piece of Aurora's auburn hair, which in the sun had a deep shade of red. _"... Maga crines cum ardentibus... maga crines cum ardentibus..."_

Suddenly Aurora got her reactivity back. She clenched the Tommy Gun hard and hit the witch with the back of the weapon. The witch got hit on the left side of her face.

She hissed and with a blink of an eye, she disappeared.

Aurora fell to her knees as her legs couldn't carry her anymore. She was shaking in her whole body from the experience.

"Aurora?" Ann almost crawled towards her. She was drenched in water and was as shaky in her legs as Aurora.

"Ann, you okay?" Aurora asked with a raspy voice. She stood up again on her shaky legs. Her heart hammered in her body, she could actually hear the pounding in her ears.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a bit startled." Ann replied between clenched together teeth.

Aurora chuckled. "You describe yourself as 'a bit startled' when you've almost been killed by angry natives?"

Ann started to laugh too. "I know."

Englehorn ignored the chuckling women. They had probably gone crazy. "Seen enough?" He asked Carl Denham. But Carl wasn't in condition to answer. He mumbled quietly to himself, like a mad man. Englehorn rolled his eyes, another crazy person to take care of! Deciding that _he_ was the only sane person left, he immediately instructed his crew to make sure everyone in the stunned film team returned to the Venture safe.

"Ann, we have to go!" Aurora said between the laughter as she noticed Englehorn tapping his foot on the ground. Ann didn't respond, instead she started to giggle more. Aurora dragged Ann up and swung Ann's arm around her shoulder to make Ann walk properly, still leaning heavily against Aurora.

To carry Ann's weight and a heavy Tommy Gun turned out to be harder than she had expected. Jack Driscoll noticed this and since he wasn't carrying anything, he offered to help. Aurora accepted gladly. As they reached the boats, Ann had silenced and was struck with some form of chock. She wasn't talking at all and just stared into space.

"Has she ever been like this before?" Jack asked quietly.

"No." Aurora shook her head. "I'm surprised she reacted this way. She's always been the stronger of us."

"Aurora?" A hand grabbed her arm.

"Yes, Annie?" Aurora answered, using a pet name she knew Ann hated. The boat listed.

"Don't call me 'Annie'." Ann said with aggravation. She seemed to have returned to normal again.

"Fine, _Ann_. You happy now?"

Ann was serious. Her question was unexpected. "That witch, she chanted something towards you too." She said. "Right?"

"Yes." Aurora shuddered from the memory. _"... Maga crines cum ardentibus... maga crines cum ardentibus..." _What the hell did that mean?

"She said something else to me." Ann informed. "I can't recite it but it was definately different."

**::::**

It was getting dark. Carl Denham had agreed to leave the island since a warrant on him had been known by Mr. Hayes and Englehorn. He had no other choice. Ann was tucked into her bed by Aurora and Jack. It was a strange feeling in the air. Both the film team and the crew could feel it. No one wanted to return to the Island.

Just as Englehorn had decided to start the engine was a scream heard over the Venture.

"What is that?" Englehorn asked Mr. Hayes.

"I don't know." Answered Mr. Hayes with shrugging shoulders.

Another scream was heard again, but this time it sounded like someone shouted something.

Englehorn squinted his eyes, his eyesight had started to become blurry in the edges. He reminded himself to get a pair of glasses next time he was in land. "There are people on the deck, running around."

"You're right, they are." Mr. Hayes confirmed. "What the hell is going on?"

The door to the helm swung open with a crack. In ran Jack Driscoll, also called Shakespeare by Lumpy, he took a deep breath before he practically screamed. "Ann is gone! They've taken her!"

"Who?"

"The natives! Look, I saw this necklace hanging around one of their necks on the island. I found it on the deck." He shoved a necklace made of craniums into their faces. "Also, Ann's room is a mess!"

Mr. Hayes stared at Englehorn.

"We have to release the life crafts again, Mr. Hayes, make sure that the crew gets the weapons while I'm releasing the boats.

"Yes." Mr. Hayes stormed out of the room.

Jack stared after him and turned to Englehorn who was busy with his coat. "Thank you, for doing this." He said.

Englehorn gave him a nod in return. "No problem."

He released the boats and structured the search party, ten men were to stay on the Venture and 20 others were to leave for the island, adding up with the film team (including Chastain who was determined to follow) it took them three boats.

"What is that light?" A crew member asked. He pointed towards the island.

"Yeah, and the drums, it's like them we heard before, but it's louder this time." Helmsman answered.

Englehorn glanced up to the island. They were right, something was going on there. Like some sort of ritual. The first boat reached the shore and Englehorn wasn't surprised to see Chastain and Jack Driscoll were the first to leave, running the same way he had walked beside her earlier that day. He wished Chastain had stayed on the Venture, but he knew her well enough to know that she would never do that. Besides, she was an adult. She could make her own decisions.

When he and his crew reached the gate again he found Chastain, Driscoll and Denham looking a bit disappointed and helpless.

"She is gone." Driscoll informed the crew. "So are the natives."

"What do you mean 'she's gone'?" Simpson asked. "Is she dead or what?"

"Tell them, Denham, you saw it." Chastain said. "What took her?"

Carl turned to them. "We're going to need the wide-angle, Preston bring the tripod and all the film, we have a movie to make!"

Preston's mouth fell open. "After all this that has happened, and all that you're thinking about is shooting a picture?"

Denham lost his patience. "Goddamn it, Preston we're gonna finish this film for our dead friend. And We'll donate the proceeds to his wife and kids."

"But there is a warrant..."

"Defeat is only momentary." Carl Denham interrupted with a growing wide grin.

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 8:

He knew she was stubborn and he believed she was strong enough to actually make it. He had seen her jump into cold water to save another human and carry a gun without complaining.

She looked up and into his eyes. When did their relationship change to this? When did they go from being enemies and hate the sight of each other to actually realize that they would miss the other. Aurora took a small step closer. He did the same. Previously they had been _Ink battling Saltwater_, her representing the ink as a writer and him representing saltwater as a sailor.

**:::**

"He might have patience with you and your sarcasm for a thousand of times, he might even find your pretended independence funny for a while, but when you reaches the 1001th time..."

Aurora was stunned.

Jimmy continued he flipped with his finger. "You will be beat down in no time." He said melodramatic.

She furrowed her brows and got her voice back. "Just because he could doesn't mean he will." She said with a weak voice. Tears threatened to fell. This wasn't Jimmy, he wasn't like that!


	8. Ch8, Auf Wiedersehen

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Auf Wiedersehen**

"Defeat is only momentary." Carl Denham's words echoed in the dark. Aurora couldn't believe that he only thought about his damn picture! Ann was out there in the hands of a horrid creature, for god's sake! She didn't hesitate a minute when a search party was formed. It was supposed to be lead by Mr. Hayes, the group included Lumpy, Choy, Simpson, Carter, Jimmy, Herbert, Carl, Preston and about ten others, some from the film team, others from the crew. Englehorn decided to stay behind the wall with five of his men to guard the gate and the Venture.

As Mr. Hayes handed out ammo and weapons to everyone, Aurora felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked up and saw Englehorn looking down at her.

"May I have a word with you?" He asked softly.

"Sure." She said. Aurora hoped that he hadn't decided to hold her by the gate, not allow her into the jungle. But if he did, she wouldn't obey.

"Jimmy, can you take care of my Tommy Gun and ammo bag when I'm gone?" She asked Jimmy. He nodded with a question look on his face. Aurora got up.

She left Jimmy for Englehorn. They rounded a rock to get away from the others sight. He placed the torch between two stones and the soft light gave them a golden shine. Soft shadows danced around them. With a inaudible gasp she realized that she had been wrong about his eyes all along; his blue eyes weren't icy, they were like the ocean and the sky. Deep and beautiful..

He hesitated. It seemed to be hard for him to find the words. "I know I can't ask you to stay here..." His words trailed.

"You should be damn sure about that!" Aurora retorted fast as a cobra. There was no way he could talk her out of this.

Englehorn smiled at her words. He knew she was stubborn and he believed she was strong enough to actually make it. He had seen her jump into cold water to save another human and carry a gun without complaining.

She looked up and deep into his eyes. When did their relationship change to this? When did they go from being enemies and hate the sight of each other to actually realize that they would miss the other. Aurora took a small step closer. He did the same. Previously they had been _Ink battling Saltwater_, her representing the ink as a writer and him representing saltwater as a captain. She wondered what would happen if ink and saltwater mixed... Would the saltwater get ruined and poisoned from the ink? Was the ink going to be destroyed by the saltwater and not being able to write with it? Were they going to destroy each other into infinite, or turn into something else?

He leaned closer. She did the same as she thought about the metaphor. _Ink and Saltwater_. This moment had turned out to be quite poetic, with the flaming torch radiating a soft light and the shadows dancing around.

She closed her eyes as their lips met.

The kiss had been different, not like she had expected it to be. Instead of rough and bruising (like she had thought) It was soft and very sweet. His arms trailed down to her waist and held her closer. She placed a hand on his chest, over his heart and the other around his neck.

They parted, gasping for air.

"This is not going to change anything." She informed him with a breathless voice.

He smiled. "Didn't expect something else. It would be out of your character."

Aurora returned the smile and reached up to kiss him again. She broke away fast. "I have to go now." She explained.

"Auf wiedersehen."

She chuckled and replied. "Arrivederci."

**::::**

They had walked in two hours in the jungle, screaming Ann's name. So far they had only found some sort of graveyard with blonde hair strands. Jack Driscoll's mood sunk by every step he took. He was the most frequent screamer of Ann's name. Aurora was afraid that he would lose his voice. Jimmy's mood changed too. He gave Aurora a few angry glances.

Aurora waved off flies. She tried to make a conversation with the distant Jimmy. "These bugs are really bugging me, do you get it?" Her poor attempt to make a joke fell to the ground. Jimmy hissed something at her and looked away.

"Jimmy!" She growled and grabbed him by the arm. "Why wont you talk to me and why are you giving me so angry glances?"

He turned around and let the others pass them. "Because, you don't know what you're doing, Aurora!"

"Excuse me?" Was he referring to her being a part of the search party? Isn't it a bit late now?

"You and the captain." Jimmy clarified and broke free. "Isn't he a bit old for you?" He added.

Her jaw dropped. "Did you spy on me?" She suppressed the worst of her anger. "For you information, I'm 29 years old and turns 30 in three months."

"That doesn't matter." He shrugged it off.

"Yes, it certainly does! It's my life and it's my decision."

Jimmy grabbed her arms. "You have no idea of what you've started!"

"What have I started?" She asked annoyed.

"He's been very patient with you so far, but if hell breaks lose, you will stand no chance."

"What are you talking about? Ann is abducted by a giant ape, a hairy monster on a island, hell has already broke lose."

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "I'm talking about that day when you approached him, shouting at him for destroying your painting... You two had an argument and he raised his right hand."

"_Don't lie, I heard you." He took a step closer with his right arm raised and his lips tightened. Aurora noted his behavior coldly. _

Yes, Aurora remembered it clearly. "But that doesn't mean he'll strike me!" She defended herself and him.

"He might have patience with you and your sarcasm for a thousand of times, he might even find your pretended independence funny for a while, but when you reaches the 1001th time..."

Aurora was stunned.

Jimmy continued and flipped with his finger. "You will be beat down in no time." He said melodramatic.

She furrowed her brows and got her voice back. "Just because he could doesn't mean he will." She said with a weak voice. Angry tears threatened to fell. This wasn't Jimmy, he wasn't like that! What did he mean with her 'pretended independence'? He didn't care about stereotypes about men and women. He liked people for their personality, he respected them for that.

"Jimmy, this is not you." She said softly. "You're not like this."

"Hey, you two!" Mr. Hayes had returned back to them. "We have no times for breaks, Englehorn sails in 21 hours, we should be back with Miss. Darrow by then." He stared at them.

Aurora gave Jimmy another glance, deciding that it must be the heat that's affecting him. She followed Mr. Hayes back to the others with Jimmy behind her.

"Do you even know his first name?"

She stopped. _No Jimmy, don't say anything more._ She begged in her mind.

"You don't? That show how much you mean to him!"

**::::**

The rowed slowly over the swamp. Aurora had been very careful with her choice of the handmade rafts. She didn't want to place herself in the same as Jimmy. She, Carl Denham, Mr. Hayes and Jack Driscoll traveled in the last. They rowed with sticks and Mr. Hayes was on guard with his weapon raised for anything.

It was so silent and doldrums over the water. Aurora didn't really think it was as safe as it turned out to be. Something was out there. Nothing was heard except for their paddling.

Suddenly she heard, Jack yelping and kicking something out of the raft. She turned around and saw some sort of mutated huge scorpion. She reached for her Tommy Gun as she felt something on her elbow. Aurora panicked as it started to hiss.

"Get of me!" She howled and shook her arm uncontrollable. It slid off and another jumped into the raft, right before her. This time she got her Tommy Gun, but she didn't have time to unsafe it as the scorpion started to attack. It was gray with huge claws and a certain scary looking claw on it's tail. She hoped they weren't poising. She hit it out of the rift with the back of the Tommy Gun.

"What the hell is this?" Screamed Mr. Hayes. No one answered him.

Preston screamed and kicked another out of the rift. Bruce Baxter had passed out and Lumpy did the best he could to make sure no scorpion bit them.

Aurora hit another out, more desperate this time as they only seemed to return more and more. Suddenly, they swam away. At the same time, they all disappeared. Aurora took a deep relieving breath. It was silent again. Not a single ripple on the surface was seen nor heard.

Until the rift, Aurora sat in, moved suddenly like something dragged it under the water. Mr. Hayes almost fell into the water.

"What the hell was _that_?" Lumpy asked with a frightened tone in his raspy voice.

Something moved under the water. Jack tried to stand up to see better, his eyes widened. "Oh my god!" He exclaimed.

"What, what do you see?" Carter asked desperately. He was about to see as the first rift went from horizontal to almost vertical as it started to move towards the others. Mr. Hayes almost fell into the water again. Aurora gulped and hung the Tommy Gun around her shoulders. She saw it for the first time, it was a _gigantic_ fish. No, that wasn't a fish, that was a monster in water!

She and the others fell out of the rift as the fish turned it over. Most of the people crawled back fast again and started to row back to the shore.

"Wait for me!" Aurora screamed as she tried to stay by the surface. The heavy weapon held her down. No one of them seemed to hear. She fell down under the surface as the Tommy Gun dragged her down to the bottom.

She struggled with shoulder-strap on the bottom. In the corner of her eye Aurora recognized Jack in the same situation as her, he had a bag of film holding him down. She finally got rid off it and started to swim up to the surface as she recognized another movement from Jack. He was looking absolutely terrified and he waved with his arms and pointed towards the bottom. She turned, the giant monstrous fish swam towards them. A crew member hadn't seen it yet and swam for his life to the surface... or to his death. Aurora tried to not panic and not to scream, and not to lose all the oxygen she had left. She did exactly as Jack had instructed her to do, swim to the bottom.

The fish passed her and with it's long tail hit her, she tumbled around in the water. It made a U-turn and disappeared. Jack got up and started to swim in the opposite direction. Aurora was just about to return to the surface as it returned. She became completely still, tried to play dead.

The horrifying fish kind of tilted it's head. It judged her, was she worth it?

A bubble of oxygen slipped her lips. She was starting to get dizzy.

It swam towards her in a horrifying speed. She shut her eyes. An image of her mother float in front of her eyelids, and Englehorn just before he had kissed her...

"_Do you even know his first name?"_ Jimmy's voice echoed and faded away. She was hit by an underwater wave of water, Aurora waited for the bite and made the decision to breath in water in the same moment it took her. She wanted to be dead when it ate her.

The bite never came. It had decided to pass her and headed towards the moving back of Jack Driscoll instead. She felt the dizziness again and her vision started to go darker. Aurora swam towards the surface. Aurora broke the surface to breath and felt horrible for leaving Jack.

She felt someone grab her and pulling her up to a rift. Jimmy breathed hard into her ear as he pulled her up. "Aurora?" He asked. "I'm so sorry for what I said!" He shouted when she didn't reply.

"Jack!" She screamed instead when her voice returned. "Where is Jack?"

"Calm down, chick." An annoying voice said, she recognized it as Bruce Baxter's. "He's splashing around in the water over there!" He pointed towards a figure in the water swimming towards the shore.

A wave of relief rushed over her as they reached the shore too. She ran to the land and clambered to a tree. "No more water. No more water!" She muttered to herself. Aurora shut her eyes hard. She heard a splashing, a growl and a scream. Aurora opened her eyes again and shut them again. What was that?

"Did you got that?" She heard Lumpy ask.

"Yes." Carl replied.

She opened her eyes. "What did Carl got?"

Lumpy turned to her with a weird face expression. "He filmed a man being eaten of that fish thing."

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 9:

Carl was happy again as he realized that he had new business on going. "Just as you go down... for the third and final time... as your head disappears beneath the waves... and your lungs fill with water... do you know what happens in those last precious seconds before you drown?" He asked Baxter. 

Baxter wondered why the hell Carl started to talk about drowning. He grew impatient as Carl had stopped. "Come on, buddy. Get up the rope. Come on. Get out of here. Come on." He pushed Carl up the rope. 

"Your whole life passes before your eyes. And if you've lived as a true American... you get to watch it all in color." He continued smiling.

"Oh, and you will. Now why don't you climb up the rope, huh? Come on." Baxter said with a tired voice.

Englehorn snorted as Carl came up to the top. "That's the thing about cockroaches. No matter how many times you flushed them down the toilet, they always crawl back up the bowl." 

"Hey buddy, I'm out of the bowl. I'm drying off my wings and trekking across the lid." Carl said sarcastically. "Literally!" He stated and lowered his voice. "Driscoll is going to come back with Miss. Darrow with that ape behind..."

Englehorn raised a brow. Preston got up to the top and fell to the ground.

Carl leaned forward and lowered his voice more. "I happen to know that you have chloroform enough to put that beast into sleep."


	9. Ch9, The unwilling standin & chloroform

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**The unwilling stand-in and chloroform**

Jimmy followed her like a dog as the search party walked through the jungle. "Aurora, I'm so sorry for what I said." He begged her with sad puppy dog eyes. "Please forgive me!"

"Look who's crawling back in the mud for forgiveness now." She said sarcastic and continued to walk without a look back.

"Yes, I'm crawling in the mud, I am begging you on my bare knees!"

She turned around and stopped him, why not have some fun, at least while it lasted? He deserved it. "An error occurred when the _Aurora Unit_ processed the apology, please try again later." She said with a mechanical voice, trying to sound as a robot.

He sighed. "Do you have to be so hard?" Clearly not interested in her jokes.

She raised a brow. "You really hurt my feelings." She said, trying this time to sound as a whiny little girl. It didn't go well. After all why would she want to sound like a little girl? She was a grown woman for heavens sake!

Jimmy rolled his eyes. "You're so immature!" He walked past her, brushing against her shoulder.

"Hey, Jimmy!" She grabbed his arm. "You shouldn't be speaking of..."

"Could the two of you stop fighting? Start to act like adults!" Mr. Hayes said with a tired voice. He grabbed Jimmy and walked past Aurora, heading towards the first people in the search party.

Aurora suddenly felt extremely dumb and immature. She had been wasting time on acting like a child when Ann was out there in the jungle, all alone. Still she couldn't just forgive Jimmy for what he had said. But she admitted that she could have handled it a bit more like an adult.

A feeling of hopelessness and uselessness rose in her chest. So far they had only found blonde hair strands from Ann. For almost ten hours, they had just walked around in the jungle. Aurora sighed deeply.

Mr. Hayes decided to camp for the night. Jack Driscoll objected but Mr. Hayes told him that the men were useless if they weren't allowed to sleep, just for a few hours. As they sat around the fire, Aurora felt more miserable. The crew had started to talk when they thought she was asleep, she had heard them though.

"Everything's gone to hell since that woman boarded the ship..."

"... Who does she think she are? Don't you find it disturbing that a woman dresses as a man and carries guns?..."

"... My father always told me that women don't belong at sea, it means bad luck to have one on a ship..."

"... Your father was a wise man..."

"...Even the natives noticed that it was something wrong with her. Did you see that witch walking towards her with her chantings..."

"...If Englehorn didn't keep her behind his back..."

"Just shut it, Carter!" Jimmy's voice echoed. At least he defended her.

The feeling of being fragile was horrible. In her whole life she had been fighting that particular state of mind. She was proud of being independent. But it wasn't so easy when everyone turned against her. It felt like that. Aurora shut her eyes hard. She felt weak among them, no one stood on her side. Except for Jimmy, she had talked to him and they had made up as friends again. Aurora forgave him easily. She was relieved to at least have him on her side. She had also noticed that Lumpy, Choy and Mr. Hayes didn't talk behind her back. Aurora was grateful for that. Friends is the most valuable thing in her life right now.

She tried to finally gets some sleep.

**::::**

They stood in the middle of a circle, surrounded by rocks with strange hieroglyphs, carved pictures of hunts and a large beast with sharp teeth. As Lumpy lead the search he had stumbled on this place. A large, flat stone in the middle seemed to serve as a table.

"What the hell is this place?"

"It looks like some form of ritual place... probably where the natives sacrifice..." Mr. Hayes stepped forward and rounded the table, he bend down and picked up a human cranium. "Humans.." He said with a slightly disgusted voice.

A wind blew through the trees and all the men turned around with their weapons loaded and unsafe. After seconds of absolutely nothing, they relaxed again.

Jack walked towards Mr. Hayes and with his right hand trailed on the dark stone table. "No fresh blood, she hasn't been here." He mumbled to himself, he raised his voice. "It doesn't make sense though, why would they sacrifice people out _here_, in the jungle? They seem to be afraid of that giant ape and already have a sacrificing ritual, by the gate."

"Who know how they thinks, those moth-eaten natives?" Bruce Baxter said and tucked his mirror back in a pocket. He held his Gewehr 98 very unused and was apparently afraid of it. "So, lets leave this place and return to the search!" He said with a false enthusiastic voice, Baxter cast scared glances all over the place.

"Pretty boy is scared." Choy mumbled under his breath. Helmsman and Simpson heard it and laughed raw.

He turned around. "What did you call me?" Baxter took a step forwards with his weapon pointing up in the sky. He had held it like that the whole journey. "Do you have any idea of how many movies I've played the most _fearless_ hero?"

Choy chuckled, unaffected by Baxter's reply. "You do seem to be more interested in brushing your hair than saving the girl." He insulted.

Baxter's hand immediately flew to his hair.

"You see?" Choy pointed towards him, addressing the others in the group. "I'm right, he's only thinking of his own hair, he's like a woman." People laughed, even Mr. Hayes smiled a bit, Aurora made a sour face. She had worked hard to wash away that 'wimpy woman' stamp from her forehead. But apparently they all still believed in that stereotype.

"Do you know what we call pretty boys like you?" Choy continued. "Pus.."

"Okay, knock it off!" Aurora decided to throw herself into the game. "Too many men, I presume." She added and placed herself between Choy and Baxter, held out her arms both ways to catch them if they decided to attack.

Jack nodded. "She's right, we have to search for Ann instead of fighting." He had grown more frustrated as the search hadn't paid off.

"Yes, we have to." Baxter said and regained some of his cockiness. He stared daring at the smiling Choy.

**::::**

With a choir of happy exclamations of relief, the group went out from the jungle. "Finally some sky." Simpson said.

"Okay men, lets take a short break." Mr. Hayes decided as they got out of the jungle. The group had reached a huge natural corridor in rocks.

"Are we going to take a break again?" Jack asked with annoyance. "Every minute counts, we cant just lay around."

Mr. Hayes turned to him. "Just like I told you before, Mr. Driscoll, the men needs rest."

"But Englehorn sails in nine hours."

"Nine hours is a lot of time." Carl assured him. He walked away from the group with Herb and the tripod. Jack stared after him.

Aurora sat down on a stone, next to Jimmy. "My legs are aching after this walk." She told him. As they had become friends again, she knew it was safe to talk to him once again.

He rolled his eyes. "Do you know how it feels in my legs? It's like they're going to fall off anytime."

A tap on her shoulder interrupted her witty reply to Jimmy's statement. "Miss. Chastain, I need your help." Carl came rushing back to them.

"With what?" She asked confused.

"I'm going to film a scene with Bruce and I need Miss. Darrow's character, but since she's not here.."

"...You want me to stand in for her?" Aurora finished with a sick feeling in her stomach. Play against Bruce Baxter was definitely _not her cup of tea_, a saying her mother had used a lot.

Carl noticed her smirk. "Don't worry it's nothing bad, just a few seconds in the same picture."

She nodded unsure. "Okay." One must sacrifice yourself for the art.

It turned out that Carl had been carrying a bag of clothes and a blonde wig for this moment. Aurora borrowed the pocket mirror from a reluctant Bruce Baxter, she used as she applied make up. Aurora sighed, Choy had been right, he only cared about his damn mirror. She handed it back to him when she was dressed in Ann's clothes, a simple, straight white dress with halter neck.

She received a few wolf whistles because of the blonde wig. She cast an evil glance towards the whistlers. Did they want to die a painful dead?

Carl was really enthusiastic. "I've found the perfect place to play this scene." He dragged them around the corner. Both Aurora and Baxter gasped. In the valley... _dinosaurs_ cropped!

"What are those ugly beast with the long necks called?" Baxter burst out.

"At least, they're prettier than you." Aurora snorted with her old sarcasm.

"Listen, chick, I don't want this either but we have to make the best of it!" Baxter retorted fast. "Both Carl and I know that you're not attractive enough for this role or for playing with a scene me and you should be grateful for this opportunity!"

Aurora's mouth fell open. She didn't expect that. "That was low, Baxter." She said and gave him an even more evil glance than the wolf whistlers had received.

He leaned forward. "I guess I'm a low man then... wait I didn't mean that!" He said as he realized what he had said.

"Idiot!" She muttered under her breath.

"Come on guys, stop fighting." Carl said and brought up his script. "Let's see, Miss. Chastain, I want you to stand over there." He pointed towards a rock. "You're supposed to scream for your life then is Bruce coming into the frame with his gun and gives you his hand to help you."

Aurora nodded. This wasn't so bad but was it really such a good idea to scream in front of these dinosaurs? "Carl, is it really necessary to scream? I mean what if we alert the dinosaurs?"

Carl waved it off. "Nothing's going to happen. Trust me, I'm a professional."

Aurora climbed over stones and almost hid herself behind the rock. She straightened her blonde wig and gave Carl a thumbs up.

"Action!"

With a feeling of doing something very stupid, Aurora appeared in the frame, from behind the rock and turned theatrically to face the dinosaurs behind her. With a deep breath, she started to scream like the fire was lose.

"Great, Chastain! You're screaming better than Ann." Carl shouted. "Bruce, it's your turn!" He added.

Bruce stormed into the scene. "Fear not!" He screamed and ran towards Aurora. He offered his hand, she took it. It was then they realized that the dinosaurs had started to move... towards them!

"Eh.. Carl, the dinosaurs are coming!" Baxter said with a weak voice. The colors were drained from his face.

"Continue to act!" Carl ordered.

Baxter dragged Aurora towards the camera and she started to feel the same fear as he did.

"Stop!" Carl held out his hand.

"What?" Baxter screamed back as he stopped. He looked behind himself.

Carl ignored it. "Perfect, I love the realistic fear! Now Bruce, kiss her!"

"What!" Both of them exclaimed.

"Just do it, it's a part of the scene!"

"You never told us that!" She said horrified.

"Look, I'm just an actor with a gun who's lost his motivation." Baxter stated.

Carl grew impatient. "Just do it, we need this scene, otherwise the audience will think it's fake."

"No one's going to think this is fake." Baxter said with irony and grabbed her head to plant a movie kiss on her lips.

When they still were in front of the camera he dragged her away from the dinosaurs but as they passed the camera, he dropped her and started to run for his life. Carl was already packaging his tripod. Both Carl and Aurora ran from the scene, leaving Herb who was stupid enough to snap a picture of the agglomerating dinosaurs.

As Aurora ran for her life, she realized that the high heels were definitely bad running shoes. As she passed the abandoned camping place, she fetched her old clothes and low shoes.

"You don't have time to change, Miss. Chastain." Carl screamed as he ran past.

A glance backwards confirmed his stating. They stormed closer her, she got up, ran... and fell. Her knees started to bleed and she curled up in a ball to make herself as small as possible. The ground thundered and as she heard a horrifying hiss, she got up and started to run again.

Aurora wasn't a religious person but she made the sign of the holy cross as the large animals stormed past her with only inches to her favor. In front of her, she saw a smaller kind of dinosaur being crushed by the feet of the long necks. She jumped over it and hoped it was dead. The dinosaurs stormed around and past her.

When she realized that she had made it alive was when the last dinosaur passed her. Aurora slowed down and locked behind her. Smaller dinosaurs, the same sort as she had been jumping over, lay dead and mangled on the ground. Apparently she had been the last. She turned around to run after her group and saw the dinosaurs skid over the edge of a cliff.

"Jimmy!" She screamed and hoped he would be okay.

"Here." He answered, standing in surviving part of the group. They stood on the other side of a deep valley. At first, she wondered how they had gotten there (did they fly?) but then she saw the big tree trunk making a bridge.

"You okay?" Jack asked concerned. How bad was she actually looking? A quick glance down on her torso and legs informed her that she had destroyed the fine white dress with mud.

"Fine." She waved it off. How the hell did she survive this? She asked herself. Talk about luck, she hadn't destroyed the high heels! The blonde wig had even stayed on. Her heart beat hard in her chest as she crawled over the tree trunk, trying to not look down.

"What's in that cave?" She heard a man ask another.

"I don't know."

Suddenly bats flew out of the cave and a monstrous growl was heard.

Aurora heard Jimmy gulp. She stopped breath. She had heard that before and she knew who the growl belonged to. That giant ape!

"Get back over the tree trunk!" Mr. Hayes screamed as he positioned himself in front of the cave, making _him_ the first thing that ape would see.

"No! Mr. Hayes!" Jimmy screamed and ran towards him. Jack stopped Jimmy and started to pull him back over the tree trunk. Aurora followed.

"Come to me." Mr. Hayes said low. The growl grew louder. "Come to me!"

The ape made an appearance from the shadows. Everyone froze for a second, it was bigger than Carl had described it to be.

Mr. Hayes started to fire. The first thing the ape did was to grab Mr. Hayes and throw him into the stone wall of the deep valley, the dead body fell to the ground. Jimmy started to scream heartrending. "Mr. Hayes! I'm going to kill him, I'm going to kill him. He killed Mr. Hayes!" Jimmy broke down in sobs, Jack held him close to him to make sure Jimmy didn't do anything stupid.

Speaking of stupid... Jimmy's scream alerted the ape. His big nostrils fluttered. He caught a sight of her and tilted his head. Aurora's blonde wig fell off her. With a disappointed growl it slammed the ground with both fists.

"Oh god no." Aurora whispered as the ape grabbed the tree trunk and started to shake it. She held on a stick with both her arms and legs. Because her life depended on it! The ape rocked the tree trunk and Choy fell of. She suppressed a sob of losing another friend in such short amount of time. To her great horror, the tree trunk started to skid down the valley.

"I'm dead!" She heard a man scream and let go. He fell and landed with a crack from his snapped neck.

The feeling of falling is very strange. It's like you've left your stomach up there and now is falling without it. The tree trunk got stuck and Aurora, among the others, released their holds unwillingly.

Darkness embraced her and knocked out her pain.

**::::**

The reason Aurora was pulled out of the dark was sharp pain in her ankle. Her eyes widened as the pain became unbearable. A scream she never knew she was capable of slipped her lips as she saw a huge insect biting her in the ankle.

"Hold still!" Jimmy screamed.

Easy to say, hard to actually _do_. She kicked with her other leg to remove it and squirmed as a mad woman as she felt something scratch the scalp of her head.

"Hold still, as I sad!" He screamed again.

"I can't!" She replied shouting.

Aurora heard two gun shoots and the insects fell off her, dead. Her head fell back as she panted for air. It crawled under her skin and her ankle hurt really bad. Somewhere over her on a cliff, stood a group of people. She became confused, when did they got up there? Why did they leave her?

"You shouldn't have moved." Jimmy's face came into her vision. At least he seemed to be in the same level as her.

"Why are the others there?" She asked and weakly pointed up, over Jimmy to the group of men.

"That's Englehorn and the others. If it wasn't for them, we should be dead by now."

"What happened?" She demanded to know.

Carl came into her sight. "Sleeping beauty missed the whole action but you gave me a wonderful scene." He told her.

"Did you film me almost getting eaten by huge insects?" She asked when she realized what exactly he had said to her. "What's your problem? And what the hell happened?" She got up and took a few threatening steps towards him, despite her pain in the angle.

"Eh... Carl." Preston said with a nervous voice.

Carl turned towards him away from the angry woman in the destroyed dress. A few snickers were heard from the group above them. She looked up angrily and covered the rather deep neckline in her dress with her arms in a X- form.

"I didn't do it, it just broke." Preston showed the destroyed tripod to Carl. "I'm sorry." He whispered. The film was shattered all over the place, destroyed.

"But it was fine when I left it only two minutes ago!"

"I know... it just fell open."

Jack rolled his eyes towards them. "Stop care about your stupid camera, Carl!" He started to climb up the walls on the opposite side of Englehorn and his small crew's side.

"Where are you going?" Aurora shouted after him.

Jack didn't answer. He reached the top and stood up. He gave a nod in good bye to Englehorn. "It's not too late, I'm going to bring her back even if that ape is behind me all way."

"I'm coming!" She promised but as she placed her weight on her hurt ankle she fell again. "Or maybe not."

Carl's dark face lit up again. "I'm going to bring her back even if that ape is behind me all way." He repeated Jack's words. "That's perfect!"As Jimmy started to tell the story of the previous struggle Aurora had been unconscious during, Carl started to climb up the wall with help of the ropes Englehorn had thrown down. Baxter followed straight behind him.

Carl was happy again as he realized that he had new business on going. "Just as you go down... for the third and final time... as your head disappears beneath the waves... and your lungs fill with water... do you know what happens in those last precious seconds before you drown?" He asked Baxter. 

Baxter wondered why the hell Carl started to talk about drowning. He grew impatient as Carl had stopped. "Come on, buddy. Get up the rope. Come on. Get out of here. Come on." He pushed Carl up the rope. 

"Your whole life passes before your eyes. And if you've lived as a true American... you get to watch it all in color." He continued smiling.

"Oh, and you will. Now why don't you climb up the rope, huh? Come on." Baxter said with a tired voice.

Englehorn snorted as Carl came up to the top. "That's the thing about cockroaches. No matter how many times you flushed them down the toilet, they always crawl back up the bowl." 

"Hey buddy, I'm out of the bowl. I'm drying off my wings and trekking across the lid." Carl said sarcastically. "Literally!" He stated and lowered his voice. "Driscoll is going to come back with Miss. Darrow with that ape behind..."

Englehorn raised a brow. Preston got up to the top and fell to the ground.

Carl leaned forward and lowered his voice more. "I happen to know that you have chloroform enough to put that beast into sleep."

**Reviews?**

PREVIEW OF CHAPTER 10:

Aurora suddenly took a few wheezy breaths. He put her down, leaning against a rock in a sitting position.

"Englehorn." Her voice was weak almost inaudible.

"Yes." He answered.

She smiled slightly. "What's your first name? I think I never caught it."

"Thomas." He said.

"Thomas, that's a nice name, it fits you."


	10. Ch10, Last breath

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**Last breath**

Englehorn helped Aurora to get up from the valley. Her ankle hurt really much and she noticed that it was starting to swell. Jimmy climbed up last and he tried to hide his tears. Aurora did the same, Choy and Mr. Hayes lay down there, dead... She had also heard the story of Lumpy's death and that had almost made her throw up. Tears welled up in her eyes as the pounding in her ankle grew, her whole leg was aching now and had started to get a blue color. She lay down, not wanting to look at it as Englehorn started to examine her leg.

"All this trouble for a shoot." She mumbled.

"What?" The deep voice with the German accent asked.

"We shoot a scene, I was a stand-in for Ann, that's why I'm wearing this stupid dress and those horrible shoes." She explained.

He tied a belt around her leg, right over her knee, to stop the swelling. He suspected she had been bitten by something venomous. It didn't look bright for her at all.

"Will she be able to walk back to the ship?" A crew member asked. "Because if she can't, I'm not going to carry her, we have enough of problem for ourselves."

Aurora's eyes fluttered open with anger.

"Don't worry about that, I'll take her." Englehorn answered the annoying crew member with a sharp voice.

**::::**

Her head dangled over his arm as they had started to go back to the ship. Aurora felt defeated for the first time, she had no energy left to fight with. The swelling in her leg proved that she wasn't immortal.

"I guess something finally got me." Aurora said. "I was a fool when I thought I could manage this." She confessed. Her eyes moved around and she observed everything from the treetops to the blue sky. It was a beautiful day.

Englehorn didn't answer, he kept his lips pressed together tightly, revealing no emotions. Although, Aurora noticed that the small light he always had in his eyes were gone.

"It doesn't look good for me, right." She asked matter of fact. There was no point in hiding it. No antibiotics in the world could save her now.

"I'm afraid not." He replied with a broken voice.

"Not much time left, huh?" She continued.

"No."

"Good, I want it to be fast, don't want to suffer. But I do hope I can say farewell to Ann before..." Tears welled up in her eyes but her voice was steady.

"This isn't like you." Englehorn suddenly said. "You're a fighter! You don't give up so easily." His hold on her tightened.

She rested her head on his chest, listening to his heart beats. "There is no point in whining now." She stated. "I don't wish it should have ended like this... but I don't regret the decision that brought me here, though."

"You should be." He said with a dark voice.

She didn't answer. Their silence didn't break until the group reached the gate again.

**::::**

Carl rubbed his hands together. "I and a few other men are going to take a boat and get the chloroform."

"Take her back to the ship as well." Englehorn said, referring to the now silent Aurora.

Preston eyed her. "I think the boat ride is only going to make her worse. It's not much left." All the color in her face was gone, replaced by gray skin and dark circles under her eyes.

"We have antibiotics on the Venture." Englehorn informed with a stern voice.

Carl raised his hands. "Listen, I'm not a doctor, but to me it looks like it's too late. We're not speaking about days nor even hours..." He stopped.

Slowly Englehorn accepted. Aurora suddenly took a few wheezy breaths. He put her down, leaning against a rock in a sitting position.

"Englehorn." Her voice was weak almost inaudible.

"Yes." He answered.

She smiled slightly. "What's your first name? I think I never caught it."

Of all the things she could ask now... and she choose that? "Thomas." He said.

"Thomas, that's a nice name, it fits you." She said with her eyes shut. A peaceful look on her face made her appear not as sick as she really was. He thought he saw some sort of indication of a rosy flush on her cheek. But it was the light that tricked his eyes.

"Thank you."

He watched as her breathings slowed down. The swelling in her leg looked horrible as her veins had started to stand out. He hoped she would die before they burst. The last sigh passed her lips and he leaned forward to plant a kiss on her forward.

When he left her, she had stopped showing obvious signs of being alive.

But her heart still beat.

**::::**

"How is it with her?" Carl asked serious. The men were busy with installing a trap.

Englehorn shook his head. "It's over."

"Too bad, she was something special."

He nodded. Englehorn put away all his emotions, locked them up. He had work to do and wasn't supposed to think right now. Let alone have emotions of sadness and anger running through his body.

A thunder in the ground grew louder. All the men put themselves in right position, some with chloroform bottles in their hands, others with hand-held harpoons.

"That giant ape is coming!" Helmsman shouted.

Carl peeked though a hole in the gate. "Driscoll and Miss. Darrow is coming... with the ape right behind! Just like it was planned."

"Don't close the bridge." Ann screamed before she and Jack stormed over it. She was surprised to see that the group of people didn't get down to the boats immediately, instead they stood there waiting with guns... and chloroform bottles in their hands. She stared at the whole scene with a confused face. Her brain hadn't processed all information yet.

Until Englehorn walked past with the chloroform and told Jack. "Keep an eye on her, Driscoll."

"Why?" Jack asked.

"Because she'll not like this..." Englehorn said referring to Ann. He whispered the rest into Jack's ear and pointed towards a rock.

"Is it true?" Jack asked stunned. "She really is dead?"

"What?" Ann exclaimed. _She_ could only mean one person. Ann quickly came to the obvious conclusion. "Where lies her body?" The last word was the hardest to say. It felt like some one else had said it, not her.

"Behind that rock." Englehorn pointed again. He shut his eyes for a moment as Ann rushed towards the rock to see it. Jack had tried to stop her but she had waved him off. Both men waited, for the scream.

It never came. Instead a, "There is nothing here!" was heard.

Unfortunately was no one paying attention to her in that moment. The ape, or _Kong_ a name Carl had gave the beast, was arriving any second now.

The growl grew louder. Kong showed himself, in the exact same moment he passed the open gate, a net fell over the ape, trapping him. He growled louder as hooks thrust into his body, they pulled him down.

"Pull him down harder!" Englehorn ordered and aimed. The first bottle crushed between Kong's eyes. The ape was surprised by the chloroform's impact on his consciousness. Another bottle hit him on his shoulder. Kong growled and with massive strength, he broke free.

At this point, Englehorn realized that it was over. They could never catch that ape, all they could do were to get to the boats and row back to the Venture and never return again. Hopefully, if they ever reached so far...

"Retreat, retreat back to the life crafts!" He shouted.

The crew and the remaining of the film team obeyed his order immediately. People dropped everything they had in their hands, just to run for their lives.

"NO!" Carl shouted. "Englehorn, what the hell are you doing?"

Englehorn fetched his Gewehr 98 and turned ice cold to Carl. "Are you a mad man? We can never catch that beast now!"

A growl from Kong and almost getting hit by one of his enormous fists convinced Carl. "Okay." He started to run after the others but was hold back by Englehorn.

"Where is her body?"

"What, I thought you wanted to get out of here, stop talking and start running!"

"Where is she?"

Carl bit his lip and decided to lie to get away from the monster. "My film team took it to the boats."

They avoided to almost being mangled by Kong's fists again.

As they reached the life crafts, Englehorn jumped onto the first and grabbed his harpoon. Carl had decided to stay on the rocks, two bottles of chloroform had changed his mind. Instead of running away from the best chance of his life, he would take it! By that meaning, he would put Kong into sleep.

"There is still some mystery left in this world, and we can all have a piece of it for the price of an admission ticket. I would be a fool if I didn't offer this to the world." Carl said to himself and threw.. he missed.

Kong grabbed a boat that had just started to move and threw it into the wall. People flew like dolls and the boat was destroyed. He turned to Englehorn, who stood up in the life craft with his harpoon loaded.

Kong tilted his head. He recognized that human who had been the first to throw the bottle at him. And behind that human hid Ann. Kong growled again and reached out to kill them too.

Englehorn struggled with the harpoon. He wouldn't have made it if a sound of chattering bullets had broke the moment. Kong turned around confused to see another small human with a white dress standing behind him with a Tommy Gun pointed at him.

Englehorn pulled the trigger. Kong growled in pain and Carl threw the last bottle, hoping to god that it would hit the target.

The third bottle of chloroform was enough to make Kong go to sleep. Ann screamed. But everyone's attention was on the figure behind Kong.


	11. Ch11, The awakening

**Ink battling Saltwater**

**The awakening**

First, all she could think of was the horrible pain in her leg. Was this death?

When she regained more of her consciousness and her eyes started to flutter open, a hard hand opened her mouth a poured hot soup-like liquid down her throat. Her throat caught on fire but she actually got better from it. The pain in her leg died away. It felt like it used to be, normal.

She slowly opened her eyes.

Another pair of dark eyes stared back at her.

Her green eyes widened and she prepared to scream.

A strong hand covered her mouth, and with put a finger to his own mouth, he silenced her.

Aurora found herself in a cave, surrounded by the natives. A cauldron made of stone simmered behind her. An old hand pushed the young male native away and the witch revealed herself. Aurora who had the memory of their last encounter in fresh memory, tried to back away. She couldn't.

"_... Maga crines cum ardentibus..."_ The witch chanted slowly.

Aurora was too afraid to say anything. She looked down on her torso and found various of necklaces made of small craniums and teeth. A unfamiliar weight on her head told her she had some sort of headgear.

"Oh please, no." She whispered. "Don't let them sacrifice me too!" She knew if they put her back in the jungle, she could never survive. The crew and the filmteam had left her already, not bothering to bring her body with them. She was suddenly filled with anger towards the crew, the filmteam, Ann, Jack, Jimmy and Thomas Englehorn!

The chanting grew louder and soon were drums companion her song._... Maga crines cum ardentibus..._ Dunk, Dunk, Dunk... _Maga crines cum ardentibus... _Dunk, Dunk! Dunk!

The witch stroke her damaged leg with complicated moves. Aurora's eyes almost fell out when she realized that her leg looked normal. They had healed her! She had no idea how the hell they had managed, but somehow they did.

The witch turned her face towards the sky and howled, soon all the others followed her. The shrieking sound was horrifying. With a snap of her finger, the witch silenced all of them.

"Ruber crinis." She held her hand out to Aurora, who didn't know what to do, should she take it? Did the witch want something?

Aurora shook her head. "I'm sorry I don't..."

"Ruber crinis!" She demanded and clenched her claw like hand together.

Aurora stared into her milky eyes and couldn't look away.

The didn't give up, instead she put a sharp stone into Aurora's hands and grabbed a strand of her hair.

Aurora stared questionably at them. Why did they give her a sharp stone, a weapon? After a few seconds, she came around and figured that they probably wanted something in return for saving her life and healing her leg. With a feeling of doing something utterly stupid, she placed the sharp stone against a strand of her long hair.

The witch howled once again, creating a complicated sound with her tongue. Natives around her started to dance. They all seemed to be genuinely happy.

It all stopped once, hundreds pair of eyes turned back to her. Slowly, she cut through the strand surprisingly easy, the stone had been sharp as a knife. Aurora handed the strand of her hair to the excited witch. The witch smiled wide with her bad teeth and bad breath, she kissed the strand of hair. Aurora watched with a mix of disgust and fear. What kind of ritual was this? The music from the drums increased, the natives danced and the witch chanted again. "_Potestatem._"

The light of the sun hit Aurora in the eyes. Her headgear fell down in her lap, she examined it, a crown made of enormous teeth. Two natives grabbed her by her arms, pulling her up, she thought she was going to die.

"They took my hair and now they're going to kill me." She was absolutely sure of it! But when they released her outside of the cave, she started to wonder. Aurora stood in the light, only five meters from them, she took a small step back away from them. They didn't seem to mind her disappearing, instead they clapped their hands.

"_Potestatem._" They continued to sing.

She took another step back, turned around and began to run. Another sound from them chased her, their laughing. She glanced backwards as she ran over rocks and saw them laughing at her. It was a raw insulting laugh.

Aurora reached the gate again and from here she knew the way back to the boats. She prayed that they wouldn't have left as she heard a monstrous growl coming from the shore. In the corner of her eye, she saw a Tommy Gun on the ground.

"It might be helpful." She said to herself as she checked the ammo. She still had 10 shoots left.

Aurora ran barefoot over the rocks, the way back to the shore. She stopped immediately as she saw the back of that giant ape. It was about to reach out and slam it's fists into the boat in the water. Aurora recognized Ann, Jack and Thomas was about to get smashed. With a large gulp, she unsafe the weapon and aimed for it's neck. The bullets reached their target.

"He, you big dumb ape!" She shouted and waved with her hands, trying to attract attention. The ape turned around confused. This small moment of unfocused amount of time was all Thomas needed, Carl too.

Thomas fired the harpoon, making the ape growl in pain and turn his attention to the boat again. Carl used this opportunity and threw the last and remaining bottle of chloroform.

This time it reached its target and the effect came quickly. Ann screamed and cried in her boat as Jack tried to calm her down. The men rowed back to help people in the water into the boat and to get Carl and Aurora away from the island, back to the Venture.

However as the boat reached the shore again, Thomas stepped out and walked with fast steps towards Aurora with a strange look in his eyes. Aurora's anger kindled and as they met on the rocks, beside Carl, they both were angry.

"You!" She started accusing. "You left me to die there, saving your own skin!"

"Have you any idea of how hard for me it was to leave?"

She shook her head, almost like a dog. "No, it wasn't, you simply walked away!"

"I thought it was over." He explained.

"So, I'm not worth enough too..."

He interrupted with increasing anger and grabbed her both upper arms. "We're chased by an enormous ape, how easy do you think it is to..." Thomas defended himself.

"Get off me!" She growled and broke herself free. The anger flowed through her system. She saw red and wasn't able to think clear. Aurora walked past Thomas and Carl, into the boat and sat down beside Ann.

Ann put an arm around Aurora. "If it wasn't have been for him, this shouldn't have happened." She said with a tired voice.

"Pardon?" Aurora asked just as tired as Ann. She stared unseeingly at the crew as they started to structure Kong's journey to the Venture and eventually to New York. Carl was ecstatic and practically danced in euphoric joy. "I knew that the luck would turn back on me!" He said over and over again. "I can show the world that there's still some mystery in the world. He's always been King of his world. But we'll teach him fear! We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you! Why, in a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! Kong! The Eighth Wonder of the World!"

Aurora watched with unseeing eyes as the anger disappeared and left her feeling nothing. She barely comprehended that Ann sat sobbing beside her in the boat and as they returned to the Venture. Someone told her to move her things out of the cage she had been sleeping in for weeks and into the small room she had woke up in after almost drowning in her search for Jimmy. Speaking of Jimmy, he sat alone and silent in the crow's nest when they had returned back to the ship, he just stared straight into space, mourning Mr. Hayes, the closest person in his life.

Aurora also mourned with the rest of the people on the Venture. She and them had lost people they cared about. Memories of Lumpy, Mr. Hayes and the rest of the lost, flashed in front of her eyes. People who were dead and gone. She isolated herself on the room.

**::::**

"Men.. and women too. I've said it before, but I'll say it again. We're millionaires!" Carl said one night as all the remaining people ate dinner.

A few mutterings were heard. No one was interested in making money anymore, everyone wanted to wake up from the horrible nightmare they had suffered.

Carl looked around at the uninterested people. "Oh come on, I do this for the poor souls of the dead! We'll always remember them and I promise that after everyone's got their part of the profit, we'll donate the rest to their families!" Carl assured them with a business tone.

"Sounds like something we heard before." A crew member muttered.

"I beg your pardon?" Carl asked sharply, turning to the man.

"How can you only think of money when so many have died?" Aurora asked out load with a raspy voice. She hadn't talked in days and wasn't used to hear herself. Aurora stole a glance towards Thomas, he stared into the table, clearly regretting this whole voyage. Aurora didn't blame him, he had lost a big part of his crew and it wasn't going to be easy to find a new crew, despite the depression. When they were going to reach New York, many, maybe all of them, would leave him, leaving the Venture as a ghost ship. For the first time in days Aurora felt something except anger and emptiness towards him. She felt sorry for all the things that had happened.

Jimmy interrupted. "Donating the money to the families isn't going to bring them all back. Some of the dead men didn't even have family..." He said with an empty voice. Clearly referring to Mr. Hayes.

"No, it's not going to bring them back..." Carl admitted. "But they died for something they believed in. We're not going to allow them to have died for nothing! We're going to make them heroes, stars and unforgotten." Carl finished his speech. "Trust me, it's going to get better." And finally finished of with cliche words.

Aurora didn't believe him in that moment, no one in the room did. But she had no idea of how right Carl was going to turn out to be.

**::::**

Aurora stood in the fore of the Venture. The climate was turning colder as they got closer to New York. Memories washed over her as she gazed unseeingly into the gray water. The faces of Choy, Lumpy and Mr. Hayes flashed before her eyes again. Their dead faces, the remains of them and the horrible pain in her leg, the awful last hours... in the small amount of time she thought she would die and last the back of Thomas walking away from her, leaving her to die alone. Aurora felt trapped... she did not know what to do with her feelings. One second she wanted to punch something really hard, the next moment she wanted to break down in tears. The despair pulled her apart.

She looked down on her now healthy leg, wondering if this whole journey was just a dream. A very long dream she was going to wake up from soon. At this moment she would do anything to wake up to her boring life as an unsuccessful writer. Speaking of writing; she hadn't touched her dear typewriter since they reached Skull Island and she hadn't wrote a single word on her story. At this state in her mood, she could never give the story a happy ending. She was gladly going to end the story with despair, killing of the captain or the shipwrecked lady. There it was again; the _anger_!

With shaking fingers she lit a cigarette. Aurora had always hated the smell of cigarettes and had no plans in starting smoking although the nicotine somehow calmed her down. She inhaled with shaky breaths and cursed herself for the smoke. It tasted horrible but she couldn't stop.

Her finger shook more as she tried to take it away from her mouth. Her lips trembled and she almost dropped it on her coat. As a result of forgetting her trousers and shirt on the island, she now wore her old skirts and blouses and felt rottenly. Aurora hadn't spoke to Ann in days. Ann was at that stupid ape's side, Jack Driscoll had locked himself into his room and Jimmy was nowhere to be seen. She had lost all of them!

"Dammit!" She swore and brought the cigarette back to her lips. "Why do things have to be so bloody hard?" Using her mother's saying calmed her down again., but the thought of her dear mother brought back painful memories. She had left Aurora to early, Aurora hadn't been ready to say goodbye at the age of 19 years old and still wasn't.

The tears rolled down her cheeks before she realized that she was crying. Aurora dropped the cigarette into the ocean and leaned on the railing as she sobbed. She tried her best, but she had lost so many! Not just the dead one, also persons who hid from her and avoided her eye contact. All she heard from them were whisperings.

Aurora hid her face in her hands and her shoulders shook in the sobs as she felt a hand on her right shoulder.

"How are you?" A voice with a German accent asked.

Aurora immediately wiped her tears. "Go away!" She told him with a raspy voice. She didn't want him to see her like this when she completely had broke down. She had worked hard to set up a strong and unbreakable wall around herself and didn't want him to demolish it.

"Not in your current condition. It looks like you're going to throw yourself of the Venture." Thomas replied fast.

She clenched the railing as he tried to move her away from the fore of the ship. "No, leave me alone." She said with a weak voice.

Apparently he didn't listen to her and slowly and methodical bended her fingers of the railing. "It's for your own good." He told her.

She shivered as his words and breath hit her chin. His arms were wrapped around her, holding her struggling arms next to her body. He was too close, her arms were covered with goosebumps and it wasn't from the wind.

"Calm down." He told her as he almost dragged her to the door. When he released his left arm to reach for the handle, she managed to break free from his grip.

She placed herself a few meters away from him, with her back against the wall. "I said; get off me!" Aurora told him sharply and worked hard to build up her wall, not letting him inside again. A feeling of _deja vu_ washed over her. She said those exact words to him earlier.

He didn't move nor speak. In fact he didn't even blink, until he reached out an hand. "Come with me."

Tears welled up in her eyes from the sweet gesture. She hated herself for not being able to reach out for him too. One part wanted but another stronger part told her to leave. Leave him and go.


	12. Ch12, Taken by surprise

**Ink Battling Saltwater**

**Taken By Surprise**

After Aurora had run away from Thomas, she had locked herself into her own room, buried herself into the story of the lonely captain and the shipwrecked lady. The rattle from the writings had somehow calmed her down, keeping her own life and emotions away, even the nightmares. Although Aurora had cried in the romantic parts, how could she write about happiness and romance at this state of her mind? The writing process became much easier towards the end as the story became darker, she even smiled as the more and more crazy captain chased the shipwrecked lady over the deck with a knife, accusing her of stealing.

_'As the moon cast its silvery light on the scene, the captain's face wrinkled in insanity. He reached for the knife and walked closer to the back of the lady. She stood in the fore, unknowingly of the danger walking ahead of her. The lady gazed into the water and smiled as she watched the dolphins. The night was starlight and peaceful. _

_It was close now, she knew it. Suddenly she turned around and with a veiling voice she spoke, "Captain, what do you say about a dance?" She offered her hand to him._

_The captain had hidden the knife behind his back, without hesitation he replied, "Well, why not. But where can we find the music?" Even though he had dark thoughts in his head, he couldn't say no to a dance with her. The shipwrecked lady was after all the most beautiful woman he had ever met. _

"_You don't have to mind the music." She assured him and stepped closer. "I'll sing for us." _

_Their hands entwined in each others as the dance began and she started to sing with her haunting voice._

_It's already too late_

_My heart is open_

_Despite my efforts to keep it closed..._

_The captain stared into her deep blue eyes and for a brief second wondered why he had a knife in his pocket before he forgot everything. His mind couldn't even form a thought._

_She smiled wider before continuing the song. One of her hands let go of his shoulder and reached for the pocket in her silky green dress. Out of the pocket, she retrieved a sharp dagger with a snake like handle. Finally after so many years of darkness, she would be able to walk on the earth again. _

_...But I can't forget that day, I was waiting _

_Then you saw me _

_Walked towards me _

_With a tilted smile_

_The captain stared deeper into her eyes, did they even have an end? Hopelessly trapped by her singing and beauty he didn't react as she slowly trailed with the dagger down his neck towards his heart, leaving a small track of blood. It was the blood that was going to save her from the aches and give her life back. _

_She sang the last tones of the song. They stopped dancing and the captain, in his insane passionate love, leaned closer to steal a kiss. _

_With a last gorgeous smile she pushed the dagger into his heart. _

_His death came instantly. The captain even died with a smile on his lips and a lovestruck look on his face. The shipwrecked lady let his fall to the deck be soft, she knelt down by his side and slowly pulled the dagger out of his chest. With soft hands, she closed his eyes and kissed his forehead. The happiness she felt was so great. Thanks to him, she would be free again._

"_I love you." The last words disappeared into the atmosphere, before the shipwrecked did it too.'_

Aurora finished the writing and stretched her fingers. She felt uneasy as she read the script once again. She had killed Thomas Englehorn! She had drove a dagger into his chest! Aurora tried to calm herself down by trying to convince herself that it just was a story. She was facing another problem now; what was she going to call the story? She had to give it a name...

"'The Captain and the Shipwrecked Lady'... 'The Sailor and the Lady'... 'Love On the Sea'... no they're not good enough!" She said out load and 'tasted' the titles.

A sharp knock on the door brought her back to reality. With shaky legs she went over the floor of her small room and hesitantly opened.

Jack was behind the door. He wore a face of exculpatory for not talking to her in days. "Hey." He said dumbfounded.

"Hey." She replied back.

"I'm here to tell you about the memorial of the dead on the Island." He told her fast.

"When is it?" She asked with a blank face.

"In the sun set, on the deck."

"Alright. Thank you for the information." She said and was about to close the door when he stopped her.

"Listen." Jack said. "I'm sorry I haven't talked to you in days, but I've been accompanying Ann down in the room with the cages. She wont leave the ape's side." He seemed to be genuinely truthful.

"I know." Aurora assured him. She had tried to get Ann to leave the cargo space too. It certainly didn't work.

Jack continued. "It's so strange to see them communicate. It's like they have some sort of bond... I'm not sure if I like it." He told her with a forlorn tone in his voice.

Aurora became interested. She hadn't seen it for herself. "What? Are they talking to each others?"

"No." He shook his head. "They're speaking in gestures and... and..." Jack Driscoll, the great writer had no words.

"It's like they speak in their minds. Their communicating is beyond words." Jack tried to describe it.

"If it's no words involved, we both are lost." Aurora said and tried to light his spirit with a writer joke.

He catch the inside joke and smiled.

**::::**

Wearing a nice black pen skirt, a dark blouse and the low heels, Aurora felt appropriate for the memorial. She bit on her nails and checked the watch, she had at least 45 minutes until the memorial would begun, she tucked her script into a leather folder and locked her door.

Aurora walked down the corridors towards the telegraph/radio room. Aurora had a note she had received from a book publisher, Henrietta Burns, the only woman in book business. Aurora had met her two years ago and accidentally had tripped over Henrietta's chair in 1931's Book Fair. She admitted that she was afraid of the old woman with the hard eyes.

Henrietta Burns had talked to her in a business like tone and Aurora had showed some of her unfinished scripts. Henrietta Burns had hated all of them but said that Aurora had potential and gave Aurora her card with the words: If you ever manage to write something almost half – good, call or telegraph me.

She had managed to write a _not too_ bad script.

With an increasing feeling of nervousness she walked through the corridor and tried to think of nothing. Aurora brushed past a few men and didn't bother to excuse herself as she stalked towards the radio room. She heard a few curses from them, some were pretty bad.

Aurora knocked on the door and tried to fight the urge to run away, or pass out. She checked both sides of the corridor, relieved she found no one. She didn't want to run into _captain Englehorn, _she had laid off with calling him Thomas in her thoughts in a way to distance herself from him.

The door opened and one from the remaining crew appeared, his name was Anderson, the radio officer, he wore glasses and a very neat brown vest over his dirty white shirt. "What do _you_ want?" He asked with a bored tone.

Aurora ignored his tone. She had heard worse from the crew before. "I need to telegraph a message."

"You can wait until we reaches New York." He answered with a sour face.

"No! I need to send it now, so the person will be ready when the Venture reaches New York." She stated firmly.

He shook his shoulders. "You can wait with sending messages to your boyfriend or your lady friends."

"It's a business message." She said with an ice cold voice, she usually had reserved to Englehorn.

Anderson raised his brow. "Business, you say?" He didn't believe her at all. "_Go back and powder your nose, little lady. Business are for men." _His eyes said.

"Yes, to my publisher Henrietta Burns."

"Wait, do you write books?"

"Yes, I do. What else to you think I'm doing alone in my room."

"I prefer to not know that." Anderson replied with disgust in his voice.

Her jaw dropped. He had genuine disgust in his voice. Where did that come from? Aurora suspected she had underestimated the crew's hostile towards her. Was the '_dressing as a sailor and acting in an unladylike manner'_ so provoking? Had she stepped over serious boundaries?

With a small gulp, she stayed strong. "Will you step aside to let me send my message?" She asked with her head held high.

"Do you even know to handle the telegraph?" He asked with a mocking voice.

"Yes, as a matter of fact, I do." Aurora enjoyed the surprised face he showed. _"Didn't expect that, huh?"_ She said with face expressions.

Anderson knew when he was defeated, he stepped aside and left the room.

Aurora smiled towards his retreating back and closed the door to send the message alone. She was happy she had worked shortly with telegraphs in the early 1920's after she had sold her mother's sewing business. To be able to handle a telegraph turned out to be helpful now.

At first, she wrote down the message on a piece of paper before she send it.

'_To Henrietta Burns, Publisher, New York_.' Stop.

'_From Aurora Chastain_.' Stop.

(Message begins)

'_Dear, Henrietta Burns. I will return to New York shortly from a voyage at sea and I will bring complete a script with me. I want you to be ready and take your highly important time to read it. Thank you in advance._' Stop.

Aurora read through it again, short and brief, excellent! Her memory of the Morse Code was a bit rusty. A piece of paper above the window helped her out, she read through the Morse Code translator fast before she started to send.

A few minutes later Aurora was done and she left the room with a light feeling in her body. She had managed to contact Henrietta Burns! Which means it was no return now, she had to allow someone to read the script. Her thoughts wandered in her head back to her room and the hidden script in her suitcase. She was happy it was hidden well.

**::::**

"We have gathered here today to say goodbye and to memorialize all the men who died at Skull Island." The ceremony had started, everyone were present. Englehorn lead it, despite Carl's objections. He had wanted to avoid Carl's speeches about money and tickets.

"Mr. Hayes." Jimmy shook in dry sobs and tried to hide his tears.

Aurora saw Ann for the first time in days, standing beside Jack. She had lost weight these past days and she was clearly thinner.

"Choy."

When Aurora had tried to talk with her, she had waved Aurora off. Still mourning the fate of the giant ape, she refused to talk to anyone.

"Lumpy."

Aurora heard that Ann had been offered loads of money from Carl if she would participate in the show. Ann had refused and almost broke down. That was what Aurora had _heard_.

Englehorn completed the list of lost persons. He paused and gazed over the group. "They were all removed from this world too early. We can all agree on that."

"But they all died for a cause!" Carl interrupted.

"Is being eaten by insects and giant fishes to die for a cause?" Jimmy couldn't stay silent anymore. "Or being thrown down a valley by a giant monster?" He said, referring to Mr. Hayes.

Carl placed his hands together and stepped out of the group. He placed himself in front of Englehorn and said with a sad voice, "The point isn't how they died! They died for something they believed in. We're going to make their dreams come true by giving Kong to the world."

"No one dreamt about this!" A man muttered.

"I think it's madness to ship that monster to New York."

"We should shoot that ape through the head with a harpoon." A crew member called Troy said. He had kept a low profile during the whole voyage. Aurora couldn't even remember one moment when she had heard him talk before. Even though she barely knew his name, she disliked him. He stared strangely at her and apparently he liked the thought of killing.

"Stop!" Ann suddenly shouted. Everyone's eyes turned to her. "You should have left him alone! This is cruel to an animal." Her eyes wandered to everyone's eyes to get backing. People avoided her and pretended it was raining. Finally her eyes landed on Aurora.

She felt obligated to say something. "Yes, it's bad." Aurora cursed herself for not choosing more convincing words. She was supposed to be a writer!

Ann was happy for the response but searched for more. "Captain?" She asked. "What do you think?"

Englehorn kept his face stern without any emotions. "This is my job, Miss Darrow."

At this answer she became furious, one could almost touch the anger she radiated. "It's all for the money, I suppose." She muttered under her breath. Ann's lower lip started to tremble. She was so angry that she had started to cry. Jack held out his hand to comfort her, but she stormed off, leaving a group of people staring in her back.

Aurora felt like shit when she let her best friend leave like that. The guilt ate her up but strangely enough she couldn't leave her spot. Her feet were glued to the deck. She stared down to her feet and gazed shortly at Jimmy. His hands were clenched together hard.

"Hey, how are you feeling?" She asked silently.

He looked up and at her. "They ruined it, just like I thought they would."

"They ruined what?"

"The memorial of course!"

"Yes, they did." Aurora agreed. She watched how Englehorn tried to get everyone to focus on the memorial and eventually gave up. "Look Jimmy, I'm so sorry."

"You don't know what I feel!" He said angrily.

"No I don't." She said and tried to comfort him in an other way. "If you want to talk, I'll be there for you. Always."

He snorted. "Excuse me." Jimmy said shortly and he too stormed off. She saw the tension in his back. He was upset and she couldn't do anything.

More people started to leave. Aurora guessed the memorial was over. She hated the fact that they hadn't been able to give the dead souls a better and worthy goodbye. Why the hell couldn't they stick together for a few minutes without starting to fight? This wasn't fair for all the dead. The guilt came crawling back and this time it was stronger. The tears threatened to fall and she knew that a hysterical break down was about to come. She hoped she could reach her room before she completely broke down.

**::::**

After a few hours of work on the ship, the men started to leave their posts. Aurora had made her own private ceremonial to honor the dead. Saying a few silent prays of herself while staring into the ocean had worked out fine for herself. Most of the guilt disappeared and she started to feel like a normal human again. She and Jack had discussed Ann's current mood and came to the conclusion to leave her alone this day. They were going to talk to her the day after.

Aurora followed the group as they retreated back inside, most of them back to the dining room for a game of chess or perhaps Poker. She had no plans in join them as Simpson jokingly asked her if she was interested playing strip poker with them. A few wolf whistles were heard and Anderson gave Simpson an encouraging pat on the back.

She tried to swallow the disgust she felt and said no, to the their disapproval. Aurora ignored them and walked out, she headed south to her room. Steps were heard behind her, she guessed it was another crew or a film team member who had decided to leave early.

A hand being placed on a very inappropriate spot, her bottom, made her jump. She turned around fast to see the groping person. She had expected this was to come, one day, to spend months on a ship with only men and one woman... it was about to come. When one of the men were going to get too close.

The guilty person was in this case, Troy. He grinned towards her with a weirdly satisfied smile. As if he felt proud of harassing women.

"What do you think you're doing." She immediately asked sharp.

"Come on." He said and stepped closer. "You want it as much as I." His breath smelled of alcohol.

"No, certainly not!" She responded and backed away from him, straight into a wall.

Troy used this to his advance. He shut off all her escape ways with his arms. "Don't be silly, sugar."

"Don't call me sugar!" She said furiously.

"Hush." He interrupted and placed a hand over her mouth. "Let's continue this somewhere else, shall we." Troy made it sound like she had a decision. Which was exactly what it wasn't.

Angrily, she removed his hand over her mouth. "Don't touch me!" She hissed.

"You don't have to play hard to get, honey. You've been doing that the whole voyage." His left hand suddenly grabbed her right breast.

Aurora gasped in pain as his grip hardened and suddenly twisted. She tried to remove his hands with both of her own. "Stop!" She begged with breathless voice.

"Women like you need to be put in place." Troy whispered into her ear. "Do you listen?" He growled with anger as she replied with a groan in pain.

"Let go!" Aurora said with a determined voice. Without thinking, just using her reflexes, she kicked him in his groin. He immediately let go off her.

She tried to run but he caught her in her wrist. She fell to the floor and inhaled sharply with her nose from the pain. Aurora yelped in panic as Troy turned her around, on her back and nailed her to the floor with his weight. Her mouth was once again muffled.

"You little disgusting whore!" He hissed. For the first time she stared into his bloodshot crazy eyes. He wasn't sane!

Her eyes swam over in tears from his hurtful words. She had never been called something like that. Her famous anger took the upper hand of her mind and she saw red.

"What the..?"

After months of hard work with the crew, she had got stronger muscles. She managed to get one hand free and with that she hit him hard in the face. He was more surprised than hurt by her sudden sally. Troy nailed her arms to the floor again.

"Get off me!" She screamed loudly.

He brought a small knife out of his pants pocket. With that, he placed the dagger dangerously close to her throat. "If you try to scream again, I'll rip your throat out."

She closed her mouth.

He smiled his weird smile again and his hand trailed under her skirt.

"Get off me, please." She begged with a weak whisper. Aurora was afraid that if she moved her throat too much, the dagger would break her skin.

"Hush." He answered. His hand moved over her thigh up to...

Someone fell down on the floor, behind the corner. "Get more whiskey!" A drunk voice spluttered. "Damn floor, it's moving."

Troy dropped the knife and the grip of her arms. She used this small chance and grabbed the knife. Moments passed and the drunk fellow behind the corner seemed to walk the other way, back to the dining room. Both Troy and Aurora didn't move, they were frozen in their position.

When Troy turned his face back to her, Aurora was prepared. She pointed the knife at him, on his neck.

"If you move or scream, I'll pierce you." She promised with an icy voice.

He gulped and got off her. Aurora sat up and smoothed her skirt.

Without regretting her actions, she punched the small knife into his shoulder. He groaned in pain.

"If you ever tell the real story of how you got that wound, I will tell everyone what you did to me." She said with a cold voice. Aurora wished she had hurt him more. Her eyes wandered over his body. She wasn't going to let him get away with this. Some sort of punishment was he going to receive. The thought that appeared in her head was pleasant, he certainly deserved it. But it would be hard for her to make up a story. She decided to surprise him when they reached New York, to get her revenge.

Troy growled in pain when Aurora twisted the knife before she pulled it out. He covered his shoulder with with a bloody hand.

"Swear that you will never tell anyone. Or I will drive the knife into your right hand." Aurora threatened.

"Okay, I swear!" He promised.

She smiled unhappy. Even if he thought he got away so easily, he was going to be proven wrong. She was about to get her revenge!

After many torturous minutes of lying in her bed, sleep took mercy on her and she drifted into unconsciousness but she didn't find peace. A new kind of mind torment began in the form of nightmares and Aurora began to twist and turn in her bed.

**::::**

"Ann?" Aurora climbed down the ladder carefully and remembered to avoid the missing stick. With a feeling of nostalgia she recognized the cages, it had grown to be some sort of home to her. It was in the big cage she wrote the first two thirds of the story. The cargo space and the whole Venture was always going to be something special to her.

"Ann, are you here?" She asked out load again as she walked past empty smaller cages.

A growl was heard. It wasn't an angry growl, it was sad. It was heartbreaking to hear.

"I'm here." Ann's weak voice answered. She sat cross legged in front of the biggest cage and stared into the ape's eyes.

"What are you doing here all alone?"

A slight snort slipped Ann's lips. "I want to keep him company.

Aurora appeared out of the shadows. She scanned the big cage and it's inhabitant carefully before she sat down beside Ann. The ape followed every of her steps with caution and it's face twisted with anger as it recognized Aurora to be the human who had shot him in the neck although the bullets didn't hurt it, it remembered. The ape let a horrifying growl slip it's gap and leaned forwards. Ann raised her hand as if to protect Aurora, and the ape fell silent.

"She is my friend." Ann simply said. The ape snorted. Aurora became fascinated by it's ability to make the human alike face expressions.

"How did you do that?"

"He's intelligent." Was Ann's cryptic answer.

"Is it really safe to be so near it?"

Ann sighed. "Don't call him 'it'. He deserves more." She said with a sad voice. "He don't deserve to the victim of the money hungry Carl Denham."

Aurora nodded. "I agree, it's cruel to an animal." She stared into the face of the despondent ape. He knew it was the end. The ape had incredible intelligent and had warm brown eyes, Aurora noted. "He have sweet eyes."

"Yes, he does." Ann nodded. 

"We miss you upstairs." Aurora told her.

"I can't leave him. My conscience tells me not to." Ann turned to Aurora again. "What's the new gossip?" With a tired smiled she asked.

Aurora giggles slightly. Girl talk. "The _brave_ Bruce Baxter have locked himself into his own room from the shock. I haven't seen him in days." Aurora bit her lip as she tried to come up with anything more. "Preston yelled at Carl the other day."

"He deserves it."

"Yes, he does."

"I wish, I never boarded this steamer, I should have started to work at the horrible place instead of following Carl." Ann confessed.

"I don't regret boarding the Venture." Aurora said truthfully. If she hadn't, she would never have met Englehorn nor written her story.

"Why? We have been through horrible things, how can you not regret that?"

She decided to tell the truth. Aurora had never ever even mentioned her almost romance with Englehorn nor the script. "I have been writing a script on this voyage. My writers block disappeared." Aurora told the surprised Ann. "I guess you was to wrapped into your role to notice my conversations with Jack."

Ann's head hung in embarrassment. "I'm sorry."

Aurora placed one arm around her shoulder. "Don't worry, I don't really mind since I didn't allow anyone to read the script. It's finished now and I've telegraphed Henrietta Burns."

"Your publisher?"

"Well, she isn't exactly my personal publisher."

"Doesn't matter, she's going to read it anyway?"

Aurora nodded and changed the subject. "But the script isn't the only reason I don't regret the voyage." She fell silent. Moments passed. Aurora suddenly felt extremely embarrassed by admitting it out load, her tongue was locked in her mouth.

"So?" Ann tried to get her to speak again.

"I met someone."

"Who, Jimmy?"

"Not Jimmy... Englehorn."

Ann gasped. "Have I missed anything? Aren't you two enemies?"

"We was, then it changed..."

"When?"

"It was when you were trapped by the natives." Aurora said nonchalantly. She didn't want to show any emotions. "Before I headed into the jungle, he asked to have a private chat with me."

"It wasn't much chatting, am I right?" Ann said with humor.

Aurora kept her part of the conversation without emotions unlike the chuckling Ann. "But it became complicated and I pushed him away." She stated and fought the tears.

"What do you mean with complicated?"

"I almost died from a bite." Aurora thought of the strange experience. Had she really died or just lost her conscience? Maybe the venom from the bite wasn't dangerous to humans.

Ann reached out for her. "I heard about that. Imagine the shock when I came back to the gate. They told me you were dead. I didn't believe them so I went to check, but I couldn't find your body. What happened?"

"I don't know." Aurora answered honest. "I woke up in the hands of the natives with a disgusting necklace of skulls and some sort of bone crown. My leg was perfectly fine, it made me wonder if it really had been damaged at all. They chanted strange things and made me cut off a strand of my hair and then... they let me run." Aurora shuddered from the horrible memory. Their laughs. Their faces. The chantings.

"How do you feel?" Ann asked carefully.

"I don't know. I have good days and bad ones." She said truthfully. "I walk around on the steamer with a nagging feeling of guilt. There's something I've not done, but I don't know _what_!"

"You haven't have the time to mourn your own death." Ann suddenly said. Aurora turned to her surprised. "That's why you can't move on. You hid your emotions in the story you wrote, but you can't escape anymore. And so can't I."

"I didn't know it was that."

"But you've always been hard to understand, Aurora. You've a wall around your heart. You have to allow people in some time."

Aurora nodded. She knew exactly why she never allowed people in to her heart. It was her father, the man who had left her mother when he found out she was expecting. His betrayal had left her afraid to be betrayed and left behind by other people.

She was broken and always had been. Aurora's eyes swam over in tears. The sobs were fitful and painful, she actually got an headache from them. Ann allowed Aurora's head lean on her shoulder. Silently she rocked both of them and listened to Aurora's crying.

The ape tilted his head at the scene of the crying ladies.

**::::**


	13. Ch13, Revenge is a strong form of

**Ink Battling Saltwater**

**Revenge is a strong form of incitement**

She already knew the root of her problems. The tricky situation now was to handle it. Aurora spent the following days alone trying to think of her father. She knew almost nothing about him, she had just a single photo of him. Aurora stared at it, as if to find the answer in his frozen eyes. He had dark eyes and thick mustache, his hair was styled in the early 1900's fashion.

His eyes however gave no answers. She became frustrated and instead started to plan her revenge plan for Troy. Luckily he had avoided her the past days, she couldn't stand his disgusting presence. The knife she had taken from him shimmered in the sun on the table beside her typewriter. Her plan certainly involved some sort of sharp object.

**::::**

"Chastain! You've got a telegram!" Englehorn said and held out a small piece of paper. It was morning on the Venture and people were busy with trying to swallow the horrible oatmeal while thinking of roast beef. It was at least what Bruce Baxter did.

Aurora turned around in her seat, she had rarely had touched her meal, instead she made her revenge plan. This was the first time she spoke to Englehorn in days. It seemed as if he followed her lead and decided to pretend like _it_ had never happened. He wore a blank face expression and handed her the small piece of paper.

She took it and gently brushed against his hand. Her arm got goose bumps. Aurora glanced quickly into his eyes, they were neutral. She hated herself for making their whole situation worse and more complicated.

"Thank you." She said with a neutral voice.

An awkward moment of silence passed before Englehorn abruptly decided to leave. Aurora stared after him and mentally kicked herself for being such a big fool. "I've ruined everything!" She exclaimed.

"You've ruined what?" A voice asked behind her.

Aurora turned around confused. The voice belonged to Jimmy but she hadn't spoke to him days and wondered why he suddenly appeared.

"Jimmy?"

"The one and only." He introduced himself.

Aurora chuckled slightly and put the telegram in her pocket. "How are you?" She asked serious.

Jimmy shook his shoulders. "I don't know... it's a numbing feeling. You don't know what you're feeling, do you understand that?" He asked with an embarrassed tone in his voice.

"I see." Aurora answered and let him continue.

"It's just that he's gone and wont come back." He stated and sat down in the chair beside her.

"I know." She said silently. The memory of everyone's deaths still haunted her in her worst nightmares, though she was happy she hadn't been able to witness the death of Lumpy.

"He was like a father to me." Jimmy told her truthfully with a low voice.

Aurora smiled lightly. "He considered you as his son."

"Mr. Hayes wanted me to get another life, he wanted me to study than work on this rusty steamer. He always said: Jimmy don't you want to become something else? Is this really the life you want?"

"Is working on the Venture the life you want?" Aurora asked carefully.

"I thought so before, but I think I've changed my mind now. With the latest experiences, I've got a certain perspective of life now."

"Big words, Jimmy."

He grinner. "I've been learning them as I read books. Mr. Hayes told me to study and I did, in my own way."

"He cared for you very much, Jimmy. Mr. Hayes wanted the best for you."

He stared into his lap. "I know he did... He found me when the Venture had reached France in, 1929." His voice trailed.

Aurora chuckled. "I heard that, how did you end up in France?"

Jimmy avoided the question with dodging answer. "That's a long story... a very long story."

"I've got time now since I finished my script."

"Have you written a script?" He asked interested and happy for the change of subject. "About what? Is it a book or something?"

"It might be a book, I contacted my publisher the other day. If it's long enough it could be a book."

"What's it about?"

She flushed. "A story about a voyage on sea, do I have to say more?"

His mouth fell open. "Did you write about our voyage?"

"No." She shook her head. "I would rather jump from the Empire State Building than relive that nightmare again." Aurora shuddered.

He changed the subject again. "I've always wanted to see the Empire State Building." Jimmy told her with a dreamy look on his face.

"Have you never seen it?" Aurora asked surprised.

"Yes I have..." He defended himself with a slightly embarrassed voice."On pictures and one time in the cinema."

"That's not like seeing the skyscraper in real life. It doesn't count."

He looked away over the dining room. "I think it counts." He said childish with a low voice.

"You know what?" Aurora asked after a few seconds of thinking. "When we reach New York again, you and I can go to see the Empire State building together. It's something everyone must see, it's the tallest building in the world!"

"But that's after the voyage." He said slowly with furrowed brows.

"Yes it is, so..?" Aurora confirmed his stating.

"Do you want to spend time with me even if the voyage is over?"

"Of course, I have to show you the skyscraper first then I could show you the whole New York city." She said with a smile.

He returned the smile.

**:::::**

Aurora climbed down the ladder to the cargo space with the cages again. Without forgetting to jump over the missing stick, she came down to the floor safely. "Ann, you here?" She called. "It's time to pack! We're arriving in a few hours."

The familiar growl of the ape was heard and Ann's voice calling back. "I'm on my way, I just need to say goodbye."

Aurora waited a few minutes by the ladder, not wanting to disturb them. When Ann appeared, her eyes were red and puffy. Aurora offered a hug, which Ann accepted gratefully.

"I'm happy it's over." Ann told her with a muffled voice. "I don't think I could have handled it more."

"I know." Aurora comforted. "It's almost over."

They parted. Ann wiped small tears from her eyes. "Well, let's pack then. I can't wait to get off this god forsaken steamer!" She climbed up the ladder fast and waited for Aurora. "Don't you feel the same?" Ann asked as Aurora closed the trap door.

"I don't know, to be honest." She replied and pressed her lips tightly together.

"Oh.." Ann said. "I'm sorry. How's it with you and him?" She asked carefully.

"Nothing." Was Aurora's answer.

"Have you two talked?" Ann tried to make her reveal anything.

"It's over, just nothing."

"You sure? Both of you tend to be a bit stubborn... If you just tried I think.."

"Frankly, I don't want to talk about it." Aurora said with a sharp voice. She decided to change the subject of the conversation. "Have you seen my white pearl necklace somewhere around? I must have dropped it again." She asked.

"No, I haven't, are you sure you've dropped it? Have you checked your suitcase?"

"Yes, I have been searching everywhere. I have dropped it before so it might be the case this time." Aurora explained fast. In the corner of her eyes she saw Jack walking towards them in the small corridor.

"Ladies, I'm glad I found you two. We are supposed to gather in the dining room now. Englehorn wants to speak with us." Jack told them. He glanced quickly at Ann. "May I have a word with you?" He turned to Aurora. "You don't mind?"

"Certainly not." Aurora assured with a small smile, with a meaning wink towards both of them, she left for the dining room.

As she waited in a corner, for the remaining part of the crew to gather, she read the telegram. Henrietta Burns' answer was even shorter than her own message.

'_Good. Come up to my office when you're in NY city again._'

"Are everyone here?" The familiar voice of Thomas Englehorn asked.

Aurora looked up and scanned the room. The seats were filled with crew members and

people from the film team. She spotted Carl Denham at the door with Preston behind him in the shadows. Ann and Jack sat across the table with serious stone faces and Jimmy sat in a chair in the middle of the room, trying to make himself as small as possible. She turned her attention back at the captain who, in a more close scan, appeared to have aged at least ten years over the past months.

"We are in New York in dawn." His blue endless eyes stared merciless into everyone's eyes. "I have already received a few submissions of resignations... and I respect your wishes but I do want you to be aware of your decisions."

Some crew members furrowed their brows, others showed others signs of confusion.

"If you decide to leave the Venture, you're not coming back. Is that clear?" Englehorn asked. It was so silent in the room, one could hear a pin fall to the floor. "Everyone that's leaving get two days to remove their items from the Venture. I want your resignations as soon as possible to be able to fill the gaps with new crew members." His eyes wandered in the room, nailing everyone.

People turned uncomfortable in their seats. No one wanted to abandon the captain and the Venture. But at the same time they couldn't stand to be aboard anymore, even if leaving the Venture meant an uncertain future, as the depression still existed.

The crew member, Troy, said and raised in his seat."It sounds like you're pointing out certain people. People that hasn't done their job properly and now we're all going to suffer for it."

Englehorn replied fast with a sharp voice. "I'm not making anyone leave. It's their decision to make."

Troy snorted. "Do you think I'm stupid, Englehorn? I know this is meant for me and you get what you want. I will hand in my resignation in this night. I wouldn't have stayed on this godforsaken steamer anyway." He sneered.

"It's fine with me. I'm certainly not going to miss you." Was Englehorn's final answer.

Troy quickly glanced at Aurora before he turned on his heel and left.

Without moving a muscle in his face, Englehorn continued. "For the members of the film team, you also have two days before all your belongings shall be gone." He stated. "That ape shall be removed as fast as possible, that's your highest priority, Mr. Denham."

Aurora glanced quickly at Carl Denham. He wore a stone face, a few seconds passed before he nodded slightly. She noted that his overall appearance had changed, he wore face expressions a mad man would wear.

In the tumult that appeared as people left their seats and started to talk again, Aurora catch Jimmy by his arm. "Jimmy, do you know what happened? Why did Troy become so provoked by Englehorn's speech?" She asked.

He glanced to check if anyone wasn't listening. "Troy has made a few nasty comments about you and Ann, and openly showed hostile attitudes towards the film team. Englehorn didn't like it at that point, although never did anything to prevent it. But yesterday, he crossed the boundaries, Troy started to talk about... or rather estimate how much it would cost to get you to... do_ things_." Jimmy stopped there.

Aurora gasped. That evil bastard stabbed her in the back! Her finger's itched, she wanted to hurt him seriously.

"Then he implied that Englehorn would know before he openly asked him." Jimmy told her with an uncomfortable voice.

She clenched her fists together hard. Blood rushed in her ears, she could literally hear the beating heart in her chest. "Excuse me." She told him and left.

As she walked back to her room, her eye sight was covered with a film of redness. Her famous anger took the upper hand of her mind. Aurora threw everything she had in her suitcase out, searching for the knife she had taken from Troy that night he had forced himself on her. This was it! He was going to pay!

Not caring about the mess she made in the room, she tucked the knife into her pocket. With a quick glance out through the window, she noted that they weren't too far away from New York. They were getting there earlier than expected. "Suits me." She thought and locked her room before stalking towards the armory, aka gun room. Choosing the only handgun available (a German Luger P08) she carefully let it accompany the knife in her pocket.

**::::**

The sun rise slowly over the snowy harbor, January in New York was cold an slight unexpected for a few people in the film team. Aurora watched both crew members and people from the film team shudder from the coldness in their coats. She scanned the area, where the gangplank was placed, when Troy decided to leave the Venture, she would see it..

She had the time to smoke three cigarettes and to remind herself to quit, at least ten times, before he showed his ugly face. It was one o'clock in the afternoon when Troy walked slowly down the gangplank with his suitcase. Without bothering to say goodbye to anyone. When he had walked a few meters away and rounded a pile of garbage, she silent started to stalk him.

Slowly and as silent as possible, she walked after him, careful to not be discovered. He strolled down the streets in an unhurried pace. Aurora wondered if he knew someone in New York, family, friends or whatever. If he did have a family, she hesitated if she could hurt him and indirectly innocent people he knew... Aurora knew if she hurt someone innocent, she would hate herself for the rest of her life.

Troy walked unknowingly of her presence into a small shabby café. Aurora watched him from the opposite street as he sat down at a window table with a newspaper and a cup of coffee. She hid behind a red Ford model A. Aurora became more and more frustrated when he didn't seem to hurry, Troy sat in that cafe for three hours! She smoked the last of her cigarettes with shaky fingers. Just as she was about to take the last inhale from the cigarette before throwing it on the street, she dropped it.

"Damn!" She muttered. Her head spun from the smoke, a pleasant spinning.

"Well, hello fancy lady!" She heard a grumpy voice behind her. "Do you care for a smoke with old Gilbert, huh?"

She turned around to see who the voice belonged to, a fat man in his fifties with a shabby gray suit and a bowler hat. Aurora couldn't place his strange accent.

He smiled and offered her a cigarette. "Don't be shy, lovely lady, old Gilbert is going to take care of you." He winked.

"No, thanks." She replied and turned to the cafe again. Troy finally seemed to be moving.

"Don't be like that, sweetheart." The man said walked closer, much closer. He winked again. "You and old Gilbert could have a lot of fun together."

"I said: No thanks." In the corner of her eyes, she saw Troy leaving the cafe. She had no time to lose, if she lost him, he would get away. "Thank you and goodbye." She said to the strange man and left him on the street.

Aurora ignored his shouts after her and ran over the street, she saw the back of Troy rounding a corner. Pushing through the crowd, she followed him. When she got out of the crowd, she noticed that they had reached the slum of New York. With a fast glance on the clock, she knew it was five minutes to half past five in the afternoon. They were in a dark valley with only two ways to get out.

He decided to take a break and sat down on the suitcase to take a smoke. A few child screams were heard and somewhere cried a poor fella.

She hesitated a bit. There was no one near and gun shots were normal to hear in this part of the city. Aurora could get away easily with it. She seriously considered to pull the trigger and shot his head off, but felt it was to cowardly to shot him from behind.

"Hey, Troy!" A man walked towards Troy. "I heard the Venture was back in the dock and now I run into you here! What are the odds?" He asked friendly.

Aurora hid behind a few wood boxes and garbage bins to watch their conversation.

"I don't know but I'm certainly happy see you again, fellow." Troy replied happily and stood up from his suitcase.

"But why are you sitting on a suitcase here? I thought you would be working around the Venture since I heard a rumor of some sort of special shipment." His voice trailed.

"You know, Henry, I'm not a part of the Venture's crew anymore." Troy told him. "And it's all that damn woman's fault!" He muttered, more to himself than to Henry.

Henry, who didn't seem to have caught that, asked, "Did Englehorn fire you, eh? I heard he's hard to work with but I guess that depends on that he's German and everything. One can't really trust them." Henry said meaning.

"No it's not Englehorn." Troy admitted. "It's a stupid lippy woman who made sure I got fired."

"A woman, you say?"

"Yes, one of the worst kinds you can find on this earth. She don't know her place and refuses to learn." Troy spit on the ground.

"Ah, I see, that kind. They are always hard to deal with." Henry said understanding.

Aurora clenched the Luger in her right hand. What if she shot both of them?

"Let's forget that for this night, shall we?" Henry said and put an arm around Troy's shoulder. "I know a very good place in town that's not too far away and they have really good Russian strippers."

Troy laughed. "Good, I'm literally starving. It's been months since the last one."

Henry laughed too. "I can imagine. Months at sea, it must be hard, eh?"

"You're wrong, you can't imagine how hard it is."

"Well, if it's that way. I'm glad I'm a simple building worker." With those words, they left the alley.

**::::**

Troy left the strip club late that night. He staggered out alone and he had forgotten his suitcase inside. Apparently he was too drunk to remember that he had been fired from the Venture as he tottered towards the harbor again.

Aurora sneaked after him in the dark and dull valleys. She was about to reveal herself as she fell over a wild cat. It hissed loudly and scratched her leg.

"Who's there?" The drunk Troy asked from the sound.

At first, Aurora had decided to be silent and still but as she realized, this was a great opportunity to face him. No one was walking in these alleys in this hour. Aurora had noticed as they walked closer to the harbor again, it were closed factories on both sides. She felt confident that this was the best moment and she would never get it again.

Aurora walked out from the shadows with a hard grip on the gun. Her hands were sweaty and her heart raced from the nervousness. Even if she was determined as ever. Now was the bastard going to pay.

"Hello, there." Troy said with a drunken voice and squinted his eyes on the approaching woman.

"Do you remember me?" Aurora asked. She had a hard time to control the anger in her voice.

"I don't know. "He stuttered. "Should I?"

Aurora brought the gun up from her pocket. "Maybe you should take a closer look, then?" She replied and walked closer. She wanted him to know who the person that shot him was.

"Fine with me." Troy answered and made some sort of drunken version of a salute. "Take off your blouse then!"

"Not today, Troy." She retorted fast and sharp. With slowly and steady movements, she raised the handgun.

His eyes became wider as he realized who the woman in the shadows was. "You!" He said and pointed at her with an unsteady finger. Suddenly he seemed to sober up.

"Yes, it's me. Do you remember me now?" She asked with hatred in her voice. "Do you remember what you did to me?"

"Yes, I remember you, you are the ugly one." He insulted. "I know what I did to you, the only thing I regret was that I let you go so easily." He sneered. "You deserved more."

She unsafe the gun with a loud click. "You evil bastard went behind my back and talked about me, then you forced yourself on me."

"You seemed to need it."

"You disgusting piece of shit!" She almost shouted. "This is why I'm doing this." Without shaking on her hand, she pulled the trigger, aiming for his torso.

He somehow avoided the first bullet and laughed. "Women shouldn't have guns! They can't aim."

She hissed and pulled the trigger again. This time, the bullet reached its target. Troy fell without a sound. Aurora looked behind her back to see if someone was behind her, no one was. The shot hadn't alarmed anyone. It was pleasant to know that no one would ever find her as no witnesses existed. When Troy's body was found tomorrow, the police would turn the case down almost immediately as there would be no progress anyway.

Aurora slowly walked towards his unmoving body to check if he still was alive.

He wasn't.

She almost dropped the gun when it struck her, she had killed another human being! She gulped, this wasn't like her at all. She was an innocent writer, not a bloody killer! Her typewriter was her sword, not guns. If she had eaten something earlier that day, she would have thrown up.

Aurora turned on her heel and ran away from the scene. She ran as fast as possible in her high heels, without a destination in mind. Her pumps clattered on the streets and she tucked the gun into her pocket of her coat as she sprinted. After uncountable blocks, she finally slowed down and gasped for breath.

Aurora slowly started to feel familiar with the surroundings. Where was she? She recognized the doorway... to her and Ann's former apartment! Her jaw dropped, she had ran all the way to her former home. Without hesitation, she entered the doorway and walked up the familiar stairs. She stopped in front of the door to her old apartment. Memories washed over her, memories from before the voyage.

She sighed and looked at her watch. It was eleven o'clock in the night, she had been away from the Venture in ten hours. For the first time, she started to worry about where to sleep, as she doubted the gangplank would be lowered at this time. She didn't need to think much, the door to the bathroom all apartments shared, caught her eye. She knew where the key was hidden, under a houseplant in the window.

After Aurora had locked herself into the restroom and lit the lights, she looked into the mirror and gasped at what she saw. Her face was pale as a sheet and the unruly locks of her hair had loosened in the knot. The black army inspired coat she wore hung on her shoulders in a strange way and her feet ached in her black pumps. Aurora sat down on the floor in a corner and took off her shoes. She tried to calm down enough to get at least a few hours sleep. Her heart raced in her chest and she was practically shaking, not from the coldness. Her eyes fluttered and she took deep breaths. Some time on that night, she managed to fall asleep.

**::::**

The sun rose and Aurora walked back to the harbor with shaky legs. She was extremely hungry and frozen. As she got closer, she started to worry about if the Venture really was going to be there. What if Englehorn had decided to sail earlier? She shuddered and didn't want to think about it.

The harbor was awake when she reached it. People worked everywhere. She rounded a pair of battering sailors and saw a big ship being discharged of hundreds wooden boxes marked with 'Careful' and a small monkey on the loose being chased by boys. She let a deep breath of relief slip her lips as she saw the Venture. The steamer was filled with activity, crew members carried their packing and belongings down the gangplank.

"There she is! I see her!" Ann shouted as Aurora got closer. Jack appeared beside her.

She boarded the Venture and Ann ran up to her. "Where on earth have you been?" She asked. "We have been searching after you!" She said with an accusing tone.

"I was in the city." Aurora explained.

"The whole night?" Ann exclaimed. "I sat up, guarding the gangplank, waiting for you to come."

"You didn't have to sit up and wait for me." Aurora said embarrassed and felt like a small child.

"Of course we're worried." Jack butted in. "Ann found your room to be a mess and as you had disappeared. We assumed the worst." He told her. "You can't blame us for doing so, after this horrible journey."

"I'm sorry." Aurora said truthfully. Her stomach rumbled and it tasted like metal in her mouth. She wanted to eat, anything, she didn't care what she ate! "I'm quite hungry now, can we go inside?"

"Sure." Ann answered and lead her into the Venture again. Jack followed.

The radio officer Anderson, walked by them with a huge portmanteau. He gave Aurora a nasty glare. "Where are everyone heading? What's going on?" Aurora asked as they met more crew members carrying their belongings.

Jack snorted. "It seems like everyone's abandons the steamer."

Aurora turned around surprised.

"Haven't you heard?" Jack asked. "Everyone in the crew handed in their resignation, last night. Englehorn is furious, he didn't quite expect that from his speech last night."

"Jimmy, too?"

Ann touched her shoulder. "I'm afraid so. He left yesterday. You were gone and he couldn't say goodbye to you."

"No." She said with a despondent sigh. "I was going to show him the Empire State Building."

"I'm sure you will find him." Jack assured her and sat down beside her in the dining room as Ann went to see if there was something left from the breakfast.

"How's it going with your script?" Jack asked low.

"It's finished." She informed him. "I've contacted my publisher and she's going to take a look at it."

"Was it that you did in the city? Contacted your publisher?"

"Yeah..." She lied. "It was. Too bad I didn't fetch her, I will try later this day." She bit her lip as the lie grew bigger. Why couldn't she shut up? However, Jack didn't seem to be suspicious.

Ann interrupted their conversation. "Here Aurora, this was the only thing I could find."

Oatmeal... again!

"I'm too hungry to care."

Ann sat down and put a hand over Jack's. "Did you know that Jack wrote me a play?" She asked dreamy.

"No I did not." Aurora said truthfully and looked at Jack.

He blushed. "She was perfect for the role and this play doesn't include any voyages to a strange island."

Aurora stared down into the bowl of oatmeal as they continued to talk about how great it was to get off the steamer. No one of them could stand anymore sea voyages. Aurora heard them talk about the theater and the play Jack had written. She felt good for Ann, knowing that she would get another job after this.

"Aurora? Are you even listening?" Ann suddenly asked and brought Aurora up from her day dreams. "I told you, Jack know where we can rent a room until we get back on our feet again. If Carl pays, just as he promised."

"Don't count on that." Jack chuckled. "You need to work on him first. He's not the type that's offering money."

Ann snorted. "Leave that to me. I'm going to make him pay the money." She promised.

Jack held up his hands. "I believe you."

She smiled and glanced at her wristwatch. "I need to leave now. I'm going to speak to the room renters." She turned to Aurora. "Don't you dare to leave the Venture until I'm back." She threatened.

Aurora did the same as Jack, she held up her both hands. "I believe you."

"Good." She left the room and put her beige coat on again.

Jack smiled more. "She's something special, huh?"

"Yes, I know." Aurora said. "How's it going between you two?" She asked.

Jack sighed. "I don't know... Some days, like this she's pretending to be happy, but other days like yesterday she's openly depressed about that ape's faith. I don't know what to do."

She understood him. "Days like this, she's hiding it better." Aurora informed. "It wouldn't surprise me if she went to talk with Carl about the ape now."

**::::**

The Venture was a ghost ship. Aurora stated it fast when she walked down the corridors. It was a strange silence. She returned to her room and started to pack her belongings into her suitcase. She checked the script and made sure not a single page was missing. The leather map, containing the script was placed in the hidden compartment. Her dear Woodstock was locked into the typewriter box.

Upset voices traveled into her room through her window. Aurora saw Englehorn barking at men. She knew the crew's treachery had been hard on him. Although, it couldn't be that hard to find new men, jobs were a scarce commodity in the depression.

Returning back to her packing with a sigh, she started to feel dizzy. Her eyesight blurred, she blinked furiously, wondering what were wrong with her eyes. Her body felt strangely ice cold and her knees were suddenly weak.

"What the...?" She muttered with a odd voice. Her head spun and she grabbed the small desk to keep stand straight. Unfortunately it didn't work out so well, Aurora slipped and her head smashed against the desk before she fell to the floor.

Darkness hit her immediately.

When the darkness and silence slowly started to disappear, she heard a irritating buzz. It grew louder and louder. Her hands tried to cover her ears to keep the buzz away, but it existed inside her head. Aurora's eyes snapped open. She had never experienced a headache like this before. As she regained her consciousness, the buzz slowly decreased.

"I need an aspirin now." She stated out load in the empty room.

Aurora crawled onto her bed, and buried her head into the pillow. She had cried so many tears she suddenly found she didn't have the energy to carry on and settled for dry sobs. Where did this come from? As she removed her face from the pillow she noticed blood on it. Her fingertips trailed on her forehead and touched something sticky and warm in her hairline.

"I must have hit myself on something." She said as she inspected the blood on her fingertips. It wasn't much, it had almost stopped. The pounding in her head continued.

She sighed and went up. The suitcase and her heavy box with the typewriter needed to be transported to another location, hopefully a new apartment if Ann found one. Aurora first carried the suitcase out to the corridor then went back in for the typewriter box. When the things were placed in the corridor, she faced another dilemma. How would she transport her heavy stuff up to the deck?

"Do you need a hand, Miss. Chastain?" The voice came from behind. "As you decide to leave me as well?"

She couldn't help but smile slightly even if she had no idea why, she did smile. There was something with his voice... Aurora turned around slowly to face Englehorn. He stood a few meters away, resting on the wall with his right shoulder. He wore the usual white cap and the characteristic colorless shirt with a navy pea coat added.

She locked down on her packing. "I need two actually." She said with a strange voice.

He nodded slightly and went over to her, as he bend down to pick up her heavy suitcase, she noticed few gray hair strands under his white cap. She was sure they hadn't been there at the beginning of the voyage.

"Thank you for the help." She told him breathlessly.

He glanced quickly at her to give a slight nod again.

During those few seconds, she stared into his blue eyes. They hadn't changed. They were still deep and beautiful but something had been added to them, sorrow. Her lip started tremble with the nervousness she had started to feel and she cleared her throat in order to try to come up with some sort of conversation.

Englehorn didn't seem to be interested in talking. He simply walked silent before her with the suitcase up to the deck.

She stared into his back when she stuttered after him with the typewriter box in her arms. That man could be so cold. Aurora hated it! She hated herself for being so stupid. She hated herself for pushing him away, causing this coldness he radiated.

They walked up stairs and he held the door open for her when they reached the deck. Aurora walked past him, carefully not to brush past him.

"Come over here." He suddenly said.

Aurora who stood with her back turned to him, placed the typewriter box beside her suitcase. She turned around surprised.

He gestured her to come back inside.

"What is going on?" She asked as they reached the helm. It was a room Aurora hadn't spent many minutes in. With big eyes, she locked around, the furniture and style of the design were the same as in the rest of the steamer. Tables were filled with maps and a few, what it appeared to be, broken compasses. The wheel and other spokes were placed in front of the front window.

"Let me take a look at this." He answered and suddenly moved closer. Englehorn had a flashlight in his hand to see better in the dull room.

Aurora shivered and closed her eyes as his fingertips touched her forehead.

"It's just a scratch." He stated after a minute of inspection. "How did you get it?"

"I fell into the desk." She said honest.

"You did?"

She rolled her eyes. "Honestly, that is just a small cut. I've been through worse, like that bite on the island."

His face was stern, like stone, when he gave her a cotton to hold against the scratch. "What happened?" He asked. "Did you trick me or did you...?"

Her head snapped. "No I did not trick you into thinking I was hurt!" She exclaimed. "I don't lie."

There was so much hurt in his eyes. "I watched you disappear. You died right in front of me. Then suddenly you turn up again alive with a healthy leg." He gestured towards her legs. "You had also changed." Englehorn stated.

"No."

"Yes, you had."

She gritted her teeth at his stubborn attitude and stared down at her feet. The words that came out of her mouth were toneless without any kind of characteristic style at all. "Suppose I never changed." She said and drew an alternative universe with words. "Suppose we both continued happily..."

He waited with furrowed brows.

"What would have happened between us? If we had become a couple." She said without fear. "Would I have stayed on the Venture?" Aurora asked out load but did not wait for an answer.

He opened his mouth, as if to answer her question. But closed it again when he realized she had more to say.

"The answer is: No, I don't belong here. Your crew made it very clear." She said sharply. "Troy did it, for an example." Aurora added.

"How did you find out?" Englehorn asked confused.

"He told me." Aurora answered with a dry voice and sat down at the table. The memory of that _small man_ made her stomach twist and turn. With a hand caressing her wound, she continued. "If I didn't stay here, what would have become of me? Would I be your little wife to come home to every second month or so?" Aurora raised a brow and her voice broke. "Or would I be your mistress? You don't seem like the marrying type of man."

"Listen, I would never treat you like.."

"Don't worry. It's not just you." She interrupted. "I'm not the marrying type either. There is a reason why I'm almost 30 years old and unmarried: I can never marry any man." Aurora stated completely truthfully. She would never allow herself to tie herself up in marriage. "I don't want to lose my independence."

"And I don't want to tie someone up." He said.

She chuckled without happiness. She removed the cotton from her wound. "I need a smoke now." Aurora watched her hands start to shake as the craving kicked in. It was worse than ever. She bit her lower lip in order to conceal the trembling of her lips. Aurora had already smoked one package of cigarettes today. That was about 20 cigarettes.

Silent minutes passed. Aurora stared into the floor and felt like she was glued to the chair. She took small and sharp breaths, trying to not reveal how close she was to tears. The water in her eyes welled up and a warm feeling spread in her whole face.

A door opened somewhere. Footsteps from pumps were heard. "Hey, Aurora? I saw your suitcase up on the deck, where are you?" Ann's voice cut through the silence that hoovered over the Venture.

With clumsiness, Aurora got up from the chair. She glanced quickly at Englehorn. He leaned on a table with a blank expression on his face. It seemed as if he had been struck by a lightning bolt.

Aurora opened the door, to leave. She stopped and turned around for the last time. "I'm so sorry." She confessed.

He looked up.

"I'm sorry that I leave you like this." She fought back the tears. "I'm sorry for what I've done and made you believe." Aurora walked out the door with a numb feeling in her body. She had absolutely no idea why she had said those things. Why she turned him down when everything she wanted to do was to be with him.

Just as she was about open the door and step out, was a great sound of something being smashed to the wall. Aurora gasped by the surprise. A table had been turned upside down. Things shattered over the floor.

"Do you think you just can say: I'm sorry?" Englehorn asked to her back. "Do you think you can walk out and pretend nothing happened? After everything we've been through?"

Aurora hesitated. "No." She answered slowly after a few seconds. She felt his eyes stare into her back. "No I don't think so but I want it to go back to normal."

He snorted. It hurt her. "Nothing can go back to normal. I lost my crew and I can't get new men, the rumor is spreading like fire, no one is going to choose to work on the Venture anymore."

"I'm so..." She began but was cut off by him.

Englehorn spoke in a icy voice. "Don't come here and tell me how sorry you are!"

She didn't answer.

He continued. "All this trouble for Kong, the eight wonder of the world." He said and used Carl Denham's words.

"It sounds so great when you say it like that." She said with an unhappy smile. "The eight wonder of the world and everything."

"... and you can get to experience it to the price of a ticket." Englehorn finished.

**A review maybe? ;)**


	14. Ch14, The last adventure

**Ink Battling Saltwater**

**The last ad(venture)**

**Wilson & Burns Publisher**, it could be read by everyone on the street, the great sign had the early 1900's design and was several years old although the golden letters were as freshly painted as always. The large building was huge and modern according the Art Deco style. One could feel so small and insignificant standing at the foot of the skyscraper. Aurora clutched her leather map with the script to her chest when she walked through the big glass doors. The handles were decorated with golden fountain pens. She had to stay and admire them for a while before she walked into the great hall. Her clattering shoes made impact with the marble floor and the footsteps echoed in the luxurious designed hall. Aurora's head span in 360 degrees as she tried to see everything in the hall before she reached the reception at the end. There were palms in golden pots in the corners and beautiful paintings and pictures of famous writers on the walls.

A woman with neat office clothes sat behind the reception desk. She flashed of a warm smile and revealed her white and healthy teeth behind the red lipstick. "Can I help you with something?" She asked and adjusted her perfect styled brown curls. Her Russian accent was not hard to catch.

"Hello..." Aurora squinted with her eyes to read the name tag on the receptionist's name tag. "... Nadia, I'm here to see Henrietta Burns, please."

"Of course." Nadia flashed of another bright smile. She put on her round glasses with thin silver earpieces. "Your name, please."

"Aurora Chastain."

Nadia's finger ran over a long list. "Here you are." She said after a moment of searching. "You're going to meet Henrietta Burns at 01:15 pm today on floor 15. The elevator is on my right side, go to floor 15 and go to the end of the corridor, there you will find her office." Nadia told Aurora.

"Thank you." Aurora said truthfully and her stomach turned as her nervousness increased. What if Henrietta Burns would hate the script and throw her out? What if she started to laugh while she read it?

"The pleasure is on my side." Nadia replied and took of her glasses, straightened her dress and returned to her nails.

With shaky knees, Aurora went over to the elevator and pressed the button. She stared into the mirror, back stared a nervous woman with a pale face and a leather map clutched to her chest.

_Ding – a – ling! _

The door of the elevator opened and revealed a long corridor with mahogany walls and a creme colored rugs. At the end of the corridor, she found a door made of dark wood. Slowly she raised her hand to knock and tried to calm her heart down.

_Knock, knock._

"Come in!" Henrietta ordered from behind the door. She sat behind her over filled desk of scripts, a typewriter, pencils and ink. Behind her back was a marvelous view from her window.

"Good day ma'am, I'm here with the script I told you about. Do you remember me from the book fair back in...?"

"Of course I remember you, you stumbled on me, you clumsy girl!" Henrietta snapped. Her sharp eyes glistered. She waved with her hands to make Aurora come in and sit down. "Come in, don't stand there all day. Give me the script."

Aurora sat down and handed the leather map to Henrietta. The old woman eyed the map but didn't open it. "I hope for your own sake that this is a decent script you've brought to me. I don't have time for moony novels."

"I know, ma'am."

Henrietta turned on the map. "How many pages?"

"About 300 pages, ma'am."

"Decent, not too many but not too few." Henrietta said and opened the map. "You do realize that I will only judge the script from the first page, if you're lucky? I've read horrible writings and the first lines were enough for me."

"I know, ma'am." Aurora repeated like a fool. She bit her lower lip in order to not scream.

Henrietta glanced quickly at her before she started to read. Her eyes moved fast over the page. She looked up again and opened her mouth. Aurora stopped to breath. Here comes the end of her career!

"Out!" The old woman told the younger.

Aurora jumped in her seat and disappointment washed over her. She reached for the script in Henrietta's hands.

"No, I'll keep the script." Henrietta said.

Aurora furrowed her brows. "Why?"

"Come back tomorrow, same time and same place." For the first time did the cruel mouth of Henrietta Burns start to smile. "I'm going to read the rest, your first page caught my interest."

Aurora's jaw dropped. "What?" She couldn't comprehend it.

"I said: I'm going to read the rest, your first page caught my interest." Henrietta sighed. "I can't read a whole script and judge it if the writer is staring at me at the same time." She told Aurora. "It's too stressful."

"Does mean you like it?" Aurora asked with a breathless voice.

"Yes, I do. Your poetic writing is interesting." Henrietta revealed and gestured to Aurora to leave.

"I will be here tomorrow, I promise!" She got up and with an euphoric feeling in her body she walked to the door.

"Miss. Chastain." Henrietta called.

Aurora turned around surprised.

"This is a good sign." She pointed on the map. "We obviously have to make a few changes, every script needs changes. But I think this can have a very interesting future."

**::::**

**Three months later...**

Jack Driscoll sat in the dark, watching his latest play. The lines and the acting was phenomenal and amazing as always. His latest play had turned out to be a hit. People all over the state of New York came to see it. Both the audience and the critics loved it, calling it the best humorous play in years with witty and smart lines delivered by wonderful actors.

He loved the feeling of sitting in the dark, in the audience to notice their reactions. He liked to imagine to be one of them, to get a new perspective. People around him laughed and gasped unison, they were the perfect audience. Almost everyone watched the play with interest... Jack turned his head back to see the whispering person's behind him.

Two women sat with their heads together. "I just bought the book and it's wonderful!"

"I've heard about it."

"Of course you have heard about it, there are posters everywhere and radio commercials all the time about the book and the author!"

"It's that woman, Aurora Chastain something, huh?"

"Yes, I love the fact that a female writer get so much attention. The book is on New York Times bestseller list."

"It must be good then."

"It is good! It's a tragic romance on sea and it feels so modern."

"I've heard it got a surprise ending."

"What? No, don't tell me the ending!"

"You sure?"

"Not really, I'm so curious to know. What did you hear?"

"That the sailor kills the lady at sea!"

"No!" The woman with the book exclaimed.

Jack rolled his eyes. "Why can't the two of you be silent? The rest of us are watching a play here!" Why did they even bother to buy a ticket if they just wanted to discuss a book? It's much more cheaper to talk somewhere else.

"I'm sorry." The one with the book said sarcastically.

Jack turned around and continued to watch the play when it struck him. They had said a name he was familiar with, Aurora Chastain. Was it possible that it was her book the spoke about? He was pretty sure it was. Over the last months had she been on posters all over the city, posing with her new book, _Heart of the Ocean. _One day when he had walked down the street, he had seen a television in a radio store, showing a commercial of the book. Jack had never seen a book being promoted so hard. The fact that they promoted the author too, was something that had never happen before.

"Hang on a second." He exclaimed and turned around again, ignoring the hisses he received from the others in the audience. "What book are you two talking about."

"Heart of the Ocean, why?" The more cocky woman answered.

"By the author, Aurora Chastain?"

"Yes, congratulations on your notice." She said. "It's not like she's been all over the media these past months."

"Even on television, I saw it in the radio store." The other woman interrupted. "She's big."

**::::**

Aurora stood on the street, gazing up on the wall of a skyscraper, she felt very strange. Back stared herself from a poster. **Read the new exciting story by Aurora Chastain! **It could be read. It was a funny feeling to find yourself on huge posters, radio commercials and even television commercials. Henrietta Burns had loved the story. She said it was a modern form of Romeo and Juliet with a twist of fantasy, but Aurora didn't quite agree, Romeo and Juliet was always going to be superior towards her story.

The whole company, Wilson & Burns Publisher, had been waiting for a new fresh author and when she came into the picture, the puzzle was solved. The company had developed a new method to promote books, by also promoting the author in new media such as television. They wanted her because she was a young woman and photogenic.

The days before the book, Heart of the Ocean, was about to be released, Aurora had been sick of nervousness. It had been so famous over the months, everyone knew what Heart of the Ocean was, everyone knew who the author was, who _she_ was. What if people didn't like it? Who knows what the audience is going to think? Then the critics, they hated every book they read! She had laid in her bed for days, in the apartment she shared with Ann. Ann who was gone all day long and only came home to sleep. Aurora had tried to contact her again but didn't manage. Ann was distant both physical and mentally. Aurora had been secretly relieved to leave the apartment when the money started to roll into her bank account. Her book was a great success. For the first time in her life, she had more money than she could ever dream of. It was thanks to the hard Henrietta Burns who had made sure Aurora had gotten a fair contract with the company.

The contract had opened a new world. Aurora found herself invited to high class parties, something she wasn't entirely sure of. She was new to this lifestyle and after months at sea with the Venture, this was a shock! The cocktail parties she was invited to was just promoting tours of her book. She had grown sick of always telling the same story and answer the same questions and meeting the same boring types of people.

But even if she had all the money, a new apartment (not too expensive but worth a lot more than her old) and great success, she was unhappy. She felt lonely. Sure, she could just simply walk over to the theater where Ann worked or pay Jack a visit at his theater, but it was a struggle to get out of her bed every day. She wondered why, it wasn't her job. In fact it was her job that kept her going, she thought it was the memories from the voyage.

"_You haven't have the change to mourn your own death."_ Ann's words echoed of her mind.

**::::**

After three months in other cities and other harbors, Englehorn had finally filled the gap in his crew. He was surprised by the fact that the rumor had spread so fast, no one wanted to board the Venture. Englehorn couldn't bring himself to blame them, after all that tragedy his crew had been through, men who died horrible deaths and the mythical creature the Venture had brought back to New York was enough to give any brave man nightmares.

He had recently discovered that it was extremely hard to get new jobs. Despite the fact that it was depression and no jobs existed, he felt that no one wanted to hire the Venture anymore. Englehorn had thought about rename the steamer but couldn't bring himself to do it. First of all it was a sign of misfortune to rename a ship, second of all the Venture was the Venture and nothing else.

So he sat in the bar, back in New York again with his dark thoughts. After weeks roaming through harbors and cities with no new jobs, he had been contacted by Carl Denham. At first, Englehorn didn't want to accept another job from that man again but as the job crisis increased, he had to say yes. He and his new crew's task were to handle the ape, to make sure it didn't escape and to prepare for the big day. The first day the ape was going to be shown to the world, Kong the great beast! As Englehorn had worked close to the ape he had gotten to the creepy realization that the ape was smart and strange enough... present.

He grabbed the shot and emptied the glass fast. The liquor burnt his throat on the way down and left a warming feeling in his body.

"Want another one?" The shabby barman asked. He was a man in his early forties and his hair had seen better days. The barman wore a constant face expression of sadness, the sad stories his costumers told him had transferred to him.

"Go ahead." Englehorn nodded. He turned his face away from the bar as the barman poured more liquor into his shot. The bar was dark and filled with cigarette smoke. Jazz music came from a ragged radio. He scanned the whole room, the tables were filled with people, some played poker others had more or less drunken conversations.

"Looks like you need it, buddy." The barman said friendly.

"Thank you." Englehorn muttered.

"Is there something on your mind, huh?"

"That's an understatement." Englehorn snorted.

"Want to talk about it, buddy? Old Herman is always there for you and the booze too."

He smiled. Yes, the booze was always going to be there for him. Instead of a certain woman... The snake woman had managed to break down his protecting walls just to rip his heart out and mangle it.

"_Buenas noches el capitán_." A veiling, husky voice said. "Still too hard on the liquor, I see?"

Recognizing the voice, Englehorn turned his head towards the woman next to him. "Maria?" He had guessed right, it was Maria Gonzales, a Spanish woman who literally lived on her own outer beauty, she was in the escort business.

"You guessed right, captain Englehorn." Maria said, her Spanish 'r' rolled. "Why wont you buy me a drink so we can speak about old times?" She suggested and winked seductively.

"Sure, Maria."

Maria smiled to him and to the barman. No man could turn her down. Besides from her radiant exotic beauty, she was surrounded by a certain shimmer of grandiose elegance. Maria had moved from Spain in her early twenties. Her family had seen the potential in her beauty and had wanted her to marry the son of a rich farmer in their village. Sure, the man had been handsome and very smart, but Maria had longed for adventure and couldn't settle down with marriage in such an early age. She moved to America with a dream of adventure and fortune. With use of her fairness, she had gotten a job in the escort business. It was in a bar she had met captain Englehorn about three years earlier, her escort had turned out to not handle whiskey well and had started to slap her on the face. She was about to slap the escort back when Englehorn came and interrupted their fight. The rest was history.

"What brings you here to my hunting ground, Englehorn?" Maria asked friendly and scanned him. "No ring on your finger yet? I'm surprised a handsome man as you haven't found yourself _una novia_?"

"It's my job." Englehorn explained. "The women in my age wants a man working in a factory and coming home in the evening."

"I find your job very attractive. _Captain_, it's so magnetic." Her fingertips trailed over his left shoulder.

"Maria, I'm not one of your escorts, you can stop the cringing."

Her fingers stopped to play with strands of his hair. "You seemed to need to be cheered up." She defended herself.

He snorted. "I don't want to be cheered up." Englehorn emptied his shot.

Maria raised a brow. "Women problem, am I right?"

He turned surprised to her. "How did you...?"

"Please, Englehorn you're like an open book! Your emotions are not hidden deep under your facade." She sipped on her drink and glanced at the lovestruck barman. "Tell me about her." She whispered and leaned forward, her black hair flowed over her shoulders and to the disk. "I'm not going to let the cat out of the bag. You can trust me. _Mis labios están sellados._ My lips are sealed."

Englehorn shook his head.

"Come on man, how can you say no to _her_?" The barman suddenly interrupted. He turned to Maria. "If he's too boring... you can always trust old Herman to entertain you." He said to her and flashed of a wide smile.

She gave him a estimating glance. "_Lo siento amigo_, I'll stick with the boring captain this night."

"You don't know what you're missing." He muttered and returned to clean glasses.

Maria chuckled and turned her warm brown eyes towards Englehorn. "I'm not leaving until you've told me everything!" She sat closer to him. "Go on."

Englehorn rolled his eyes. "This whole conversation is ridiculous!"

"But it's entertaining as hell." Maria replied fast as a cobra. "Come on, give _la señorita_ a treat, she's been working all day long and is exhausted!" She said, referring herself as third person.

Englehorn stared at her for a while, she stared back and wiggled her brows, he sighed. "She's a woman I got to know on one of my journeys at sea."

"Romantic. It's just like the book, Heart of the Ocean." Maria interrupted.

"What book? No, never mind." Englehorn shook the question off and continued. "It was a normal transport of a film team and she got aboard in the last minute. She wasn't a part of the film team but apparently she helped the writer of the script."

"She's a writer?"

"Yes, I remember the endless clatters of her typewriter in the cargo space."

"Why did she write in the cargo space?" Maria asked confused.

"She slept there..." Englehorn admitted. "I put her in one of the cages."

"In a cage?" Maria exclaimed.

"She was annoying in the beginning, in the end too. " He said. "But she got a room after half of the journey."

"No wonder she left you." Maria muttered. "If you put her in a cage."

"It wasn't a small cage, it was designed for elephants." Englehorn defended himself.

Maria sipped on her drink and rolled her eyes. "I'm not surprised though. You're a hard man, captain. Maybe too hard sometimes."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means: If you want her back, you have to work hard." Maria said, one of her slender feet kicked his leg. "But if you don't want her back... Just to let you know Englehorn, my door is always open." She winked and sat closer to lean on his shoulder. "Feel honored, not many men have this privilege." Her left hand trailed over his chest to the first button on his shirt.

His hand found hers and removed hers from him. "No, Maria."

She leaned back. "I knew it! She meant something for you." Maria said with triumph.

Englehorn didn't answer. Instead he called the barman. "Another one, will you?"

The barman smiled, mostly to Maria. "Old Herman will never disappoint you, buddy. But I wonder why you want to drink instead of associate with the senorita here."

Maria rolled her eyes in anger. "It's _la señorita, _you idiot!"

Englehorn knew what was about to come, the fiery Spanish woman would probably start one hell of a fight. "Maria calm down."

"I will not calm down! Not until this ignorant _bastardo_ have learned to..." She turned to Englehorn. "Don't tell me what to do."

The barman put his hands up in the air, in a peace sign. "Calm down lady. I don't want any fights."

"Neither do I." Englehorn said and sent a nasty glare towards Maria. _"He's not worth it."_ He mimed to her.

She primed her lips. "Fine, then." She stared into the ceiling and tapped her foot rapidly on the floor.

"Will you leave us?" Englehorn asked the barman.

"Sure." Herman said and left with mutterings.

A slight chuckled slipped her lips. "Did you see his face?" She asked with laughter in her voice. "He was scared."

"Yes, he was. I would be too if you ever would be so angry with me." Englehorn admitted with a smile. He was relieved that they had changed the subject of the conversation.

"The fact that men are afraid of me does not come in handy in my job." She said playfully.

"No, it doesn't."

"Speaking of my job." Her tone changed. "I'll only continue with it a few more years, til I get enough money... For the first time in my life: I want to settle down." She told him. "I just hope it's not too late by then."

"You still have time."

She smiled unhappily. "I'm 36 years old, the clock is ticking." Her fingertips trailed over her glass and she bit her lower lip. "What I've learned, is to not wait too long with something. Catch the moment instead of wait for something that might not come."

**::::**

Carl Denham smiled, the plan worked just fine. This night was going to be historical and legendary. This night was going to be the first time Kong was going to be shown to the world. Kong, who was brought to the audience to the price of a ticket by Carl Denham. The great beast. The murderous giant ape. He had risked his life to bring adventure back to the civilization, now was he going to be rewarded for it.

Carl found himself surrounded by people from the voyage once again, as Englehorn's new crew worked with the transport of the gorilla and the security. The sullen writer Miss. Chastain,was back and a part of a promoting tour of her new book. Carl had tried hard to get Jack Driscoll back aboard in the team but he had declined. Carl wasn't so sorry about that after all, he had more problems. He regret that Ann, his leading lady, had turned his offer to be on stage with the gorilla, down. She had snorted and told him that he was a monster before she slapped him. But Carl hadn't been let down by that defeat, he had found a new lady that looked almost like Ann, too bad she was so annoying. But it didn't matter. This new lady had the looks and could scream, it was everything that mattered.

He straightened his shirt and made sure his hairstyle was perfect. Carl stared into his mirror. "Showtime!" He chuckled and put on his jacket. Outside the window of the fourth floor in the five star hotel, it snowed. It was a strange April this year, 1934, still cold as the winter and filled with snow. Not that Carl didn't mind, of course he was a bit affected by all the irritating people who asked him to donate money for the starving and freezing homeless in the city.

"This handsome man is ready to be taken photos of." He smiled and went out to his cab.

In the ride to the great theater with the biggest scene in New York, he hummed happily. This was the night when his name was going to be put in the history books, and he was going to have one hell of a night! To finally prove to the studio people at Universal who he really was. To be respected and prided. Yes, this was his night, Carl could feel it in every cell of his body.

When he stepped out of the cab, he was immediately dazzled by the light of a magnesium – camera flash.

"Hey, Mr. Denham! What exactly is Kong?" Screamed a journalist behind the photographer. "Will you give me the scoop, Mr. Denham? What kind of beast is Kong?"

Carl blinked and tried to get his sight back. He sent a furious glare towards the journalist. "If you have bought a ticket you will find out what kind of creature_ King Kong_ is."

The bold journalist journalist replied fast. "If you had allowed journalists into the theater for free, I would take a look." He stepped in front of Carl. The photographer took another photo and the flash dazzled Carl again.

"Can't you afford a ticket for yourself?" Carl asked. "Is that why you're trying to get yourself in by harassing me?" He rounded the journalist and stepped inside before another photo was taken. He got into the great hall and glanced up to the stairs and saw Preston. He stood alone and shot Carl a nasty glare.

"What is wrong with him? Is he never satisfied?" Carl asked himself. Someone brushed past his shoulders. "I'm sorry." A familiar voice exclaimed.

Carl turned around to see the person. First, he didn't recognize her in the black, even silk gown. "Miss. Chastain, don't worry." He told her.

Aurora held a huge pile of books in her arms. "I was just about to start the book signing." She told him.

"Here, let me help you." Carl offered and grabbed a few books. They walked towards a table across the hall.

"How are you, Miss. Chastain?" Carl asked.

"Fine, a lot of work." She shrugged her shoulders. The art deco inspired jewelry shined in the light. "The promoting tour doesn't seem to have an end."

He chuckled. "Do you look forward for the big event this night?" He asked hopefully.

She avoided his eyes, instead she said. "Thank you for the help." She put all the books on the table. People started to gather around the table. Carl left her, busy with the surrounding women who wanted their books signed.

"Carl, old man! Come here and take a photo with us!" A man he knew from Universal called.

He immediately turned towards the group of Universal studio men and their wives (girlfriends actually, the wives were left at home).

**::::**

"Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce to you, Kong the eight wonder of the world!" Carl shouted to the audience. The drop curtain opened, the orchestra played tense music and the audience gasped. Kong appeared. Carl continued. "He was a king in his world. But he saw himself defeated by the charm of a woman."

People laughed.

"And lo, the beast looked upon the face of the beauty, and beauty stayed in his hand. And from that day on, he was as one dead." Carl finished his poetic speech, the audience followed his every move as he stepped over the scene to the chained fast ape. "Do you see this, I am now touching the beast." He laid his hand on the fur of Kong.

Kong made a slight move and grunted. Carl jumped into the air. After a half second of fear in the audience, people started to laugh when they realized that there didn't exist any danger. The beast was too dumb and lazy to attack.

Carl smiled a forced smile. "Get the dancers on stage." He whispered furiously to the people beside the stage. The stage technician got his message and gestured to the orchestra to start play again and pushed the dancers on stage.

Carl breathed hard and tried to get the embarrassment of him when he walked off stage. He was given a glass of water and a tissue to remove the sweat on his forehead by Miss. Chastain.

"Thank you, Miss. Chastain." He said gratefully and eyed her. She looked fine in the 'low back' black dress. "We're going on stage again in a few minutes."

"No, I don't want to be a part of this." She said. "I just came here to..." Her voice died and disappeared.

Carl didn't listen to her attempt to get away. "Of course you will be on stage too! You're the star of the project and it's good for your book too." He looked around. "This reminds me: Where is Baxter?" Carl scanned the area. "Baxter, where are you?" He shouted impatient.

"I'm here, Denham." Baxter responded and came walking fast from behind a set piece. "No need to hurry. My hair isn't quite ready yet."

"Yes, you need to hurry, you're going to be on stage now!" Carl barked. "What are you talking about? Your hair? It looks fine!"

Bruce Baxter was pushed on stage and his hat was thrown after him. The audience clapped their hands as Kong's hands were lift up by the chains.

"Great work, guys." Carl shouted encouraging to Englehorn and the other man from his crew who handled the winch. The German shot him a nasty glare.

"What is it with everybody tonight?" Carl asked himself.

The audience stood up in their chairs, cheered and clapped. The stage technician ran up to Carl. "Go back on stage now, there are photographers from every newspaper in the country, waiting for a picture with you and the stars."

Dragging along the unwillingly Miss. Chastain, Carl entered the scene and placed himself between her and Baxter. "You can take your photos now, gentlemen. This angle will give you the best shot!" He instructed them.

The camera flashes were blinding, and they were so many.

Kong growled and tried to cover his eyes. People gasped in unison as he moved, one woman started to scream. The sudden noises and the light irritated and provoked him. Kong started to bend and stretch the chains. More people started to scream in panic as the chains started to collapse. Ann's stand in screamed.

"Oh my lord. Look at that!" Miss. Chastain shouted and pointed towards the ape and the stand in. One of the chains broke and Kong reached for the stand in, who screamed even more.

"Do something, Carl, stop it." Baxter demanded.

Carl was too busy to get the journalists and the photographers away to hear them. Chaos were everywhere. Kong growled loud. Suddenly was the stand in thrown over the floor, her body landed in front of Carl. His face turned green when he saw her neck's strange position. People screamed and ran over the chairs to the exit.

Kong broke completely free.

"Carl, what the hell are you doing standing there?" Miss. Chastain shouted in a very unladylike way. She grabbed his arm. "We got to go!"

He shook her hand off. "This is my work, this is..."

She rolled her eyes and turned around to leave.

Carl Denham felt devastated, he was going to the history books indeed, but in the wrong way.

**::::**

The hairdressing lady was busy to create the famous finger waves in her hair. Aurora sat in a hairdressing saloon and read a newspaper, the ocean trade part. Her eyes quickly scanned the pages for something interesting. Aurora had heard the Venture was back in New York's dock. She was too much of a coward to go down to the harbor and see if it was true, instead she searched after the name of the steamer in the newspapers. Today's nothing either! She came to the solution after scanning the pages twice.

The rest of the news paper didn't hold anything special at all. Aurora sighed and dropped the paper. Every page was filled with conspiracy theories about Carl Denham's creature, Kong. She tried her best to forget the whole voyage but it wasn't so easy when she was reminded of it every day!

"Sit still!" The hairdressing lady said in an irritated tone.

Aurora rolled her eyes and kept her mouth shut. She just wanted this nightmare to be over. Speaking of nightmares, she had bad dreams every night, every time she shut her eyes she faced memories of the latest months.

"Done."

Aurora opened her eyes again. Returning back to reality.

"Wonderful, if I may say it myself." The hairdressing lady happily said.

"It is." Aurora got up and payed. It was so strange to be able to afford a haircut. She had cut her own hair the past 10 years, before that had her mother handled the scissors.

"Miss. Chastain!" The lady called before Aurora had gotten out of the saloon. She turned around surprised.

The lady blushed. "I just want to say that you're a true inspiration to me." She blushed more and her voice broke.

Aurora opened her mouth and closed it again. What was she supposed to answer to that? "I.. don't know what to say."

"Look!" She stepped closer and showed her left hand.

"What am I supposed to see?" Aurora asked dumbfounded after a second of hesitation.

"It's nothing there." The lady explained.

"You're right."

"Just like yours!" She said ecstatic. "I'm not married either and I'm running my own business, I am an independent working woman, just like you."

Aurora finally got it. "Yeah I see."

**::::**

The pile of ten books or so were pretty heavy. Her publishing company had planned a big book signing at the first demonstration of Carl Denham's great beast, Kong. Henrietta Burns had claimed that it was great for her promoting tour since Aurora had been a part of Kong project. Henrietta had been right, it was good for the promoting, the show was sold out. Aurora maneuvered through the crowd and tried to not cause any injures. She had almost reached her destination when she brushed someone's shoulder.

"I'm sorry." She said quick. Who knew how the fancy people here would react to being steamrolled by a pile of books and the author of them.

The person faced her and turned out to be Carl Denham. "Miss. Chastain, don't worry." He exclaimed and ran his eyes over her.

Aurora felt a wave of uncomfortableness. "I was about to start the book signing." She said, distracting his eyes.

"Here, let me help you." Carl offered and grabbed a few books. They walked towards a table across the hall.

"How are you, Miss. Chastain?" Carl asked and his eyes roamed her again.

"Fine, a lot of work." She shrugged her shoulders. Her _art deco inspired_ jewelry shined in the light. "The promoting tour doesn't seem to have an end."

Carl chuckled. "Do you look forward for the big event this night?" He asked hopefully.

She avoided his eyes, instead she said. "Thank you for the help." Aurora put all the books on the table. People started to gather around the table. She watched him leave and didn't exactly miss him. With a sigh she sat down and started to sign.

First was an excited woman in her late fifties. "Miss. Chastain, I love your book, will it be continued?"

Aurora mentally rolled her eyes at the woman. "One of the main character died in the end." She told her. "There will be no more book in the series."

"What?" A young man with a body – hugging suit and pink bow exclaimed. "Thank you for spoiling the end!" He dramatically ran a hand through his hair before he left the queue.

The woman continued. "But the shipwrecked lady can't be mortal, right? She must be a mermaid, is she a mermaid?"

"No, she's not." Aurora hated the stupid questions. Why can't she read the goddam book and find out the answers for herself?

"Don't mind them." The next woman said, noticing how annoyed Aurora was. She was in her early thirties and was incredible beautiful. "So tell me, is the story inspired by a real life experience? I heard you spent months on a ship when you wrote the book. Many seamen, right?" She winked and leaned forward, her blonde locks bounced on her shoulder.

Aurora flashed of a perfect smile and told the standard story. "I was a bit inspired by the atmosphere on the steamer."

"And the sailors?" The blonde beauty tried again.

**::::**

"Get the dancers on stage." Carl whispered furiously to the people beside the stage. The stage technician got his message and gestured to the orchestra to start play again and pushed the dancers on stage. Aurora chuckled, Carl had been humiliated by his own fear, in front of thousands of people. He wasn't as brave as he said he was. One small movement from the ape and Carl was practically wetting his pants.

He walked off stage on stiff legs. Aurora fetched a glass of water and a tissue for him to remove the sweat in his forehead. Poor man, he was really scared. She suppressed another laugh.

"Thank you, Miss. Chastain." Carl thanked. "We're going on stage again in a few minutes."

Aurora was struck by an icy feeling of nervousness. It was bad enough to be here when the whole spectacle aired, she didn't want to be the front of it. "No, I don't want to be a part of this." She said. "I just came here to..." Her voice died and disappeared. Why did she even came here? Was it because she had heard that some people of the Venture's crew worked here? That she hoped she would meet him?

Carl didn't listen to her attempt to get away. "Of course you will be on stage too! You're the star of the project and it's good for your book too." He looked around. "This reminds me: Where is Baxter?" Carl scanned the area. "Baxter, where are you?" He shouted impatient.

"I'm here, Denham." Baxter responded and came walking fast from behind a set piece. "No need to hurry. My hair isn't quite ready yet."

"Yes, you need to hurry, you're going to be on stage now!" Carl barked. "What are you talking about? Your hair? It looks fine!"

Bruce Baxter was pushed on stage and his hat was thrown after him. The audience clapped their hands as Kong's arms were lift up by the chains.

"Great work, guys." Carl shouted encouraging to the people that handled the winch. Aurora saw them in the corner of her eyes.

It hit her like a lightning bolt. He was there, only a few meters away. Her mouth fell open, her eyes didn't betray her. Englehorn was there. The sounds around her muffled and her heart skipped a beat. He didn't pay any attention to her. She felt odd and out of place, standing there in her fancy dress and staring at him like a maniac. He was still wearing the same dirty captains cap.

The audience stood up in their chairs, cheered and clapped. The stage technician ran up to Carl. "Go back on stage now, there are photographers from every newspaper in the country, waiting for a picture with you and the stars."

Aurora was about to take a step towards Englehorn, still in her trance when Carl grabbed her arm. "You're coming with me."

"No, wait." She replied with her eyes fixed on Englehorn. She had just built up the courage to go and speak to him.

He ignored her. When she got on stage, she was dazzled by the light and the flashes. Carl entered the scene like a professional while she almost stumbled. He put an arm around her and the other around Baxter. "This is the moment!" Carl whispered ecstatic to them between his teeth to not loose the plastic smile on his lips. Aurora blinked and tried to get her sight back.

"You can take your photos now, gentlemen. This angle will give you the best shot!" Carl instructed them. He and Baxter clearly enjoyed the moment, taking time to get the best poses. While Aurora struggled to survive.

Kong roared behind them. The chains rattled and the stand in screamed.

"Can't someone stop her from screaming?" Baxter asked quiet. "She's ruining everything!"

Aurora turned around to see what happened behind her, causing the stand in to scream. "Oh my lord. Look at that!" She shouted, pointed towards the ape and the stand in. One of the chains broke and Kong reached for the stand in, who screamed even more.

"Do something, Carl, stop it." Baxter demanded.

Carl was too busy to get the journalists and the photographers away to hear them. Chaos were everywhere. Kong growled loud. Suddenly was the stand in thrown over the floor, her body landed in front of Carl. His face turned green when he saw her neck's strange position. People screamed and ran over the chairs to the exit. Aurora's feet were glued to the floor and her legs were frozen, she couldn't move out of fear.

Kong broke completely free.

The sounds of cracking wood and steel made her wake up from the paralyzation. She saw Carl in the corner of her eye, not moving. First she thought he was paralyzed just like she had been seconds ago. But in this case, it was clear he wasn't. "Carl, what the hell are you doing standing there?" She shouted in a very unladylike way. She grabbed his arm. "We got to go!"

He shook her hand off. "This is my work, this is..." He had completely lost his senses.

She rolled her eyes, decided to not waste time on him and turned around to leave. The first person she saw behind the stage was Englehorn. She literally ran into him in her attempt to get as far away as possible from Kong. "Thomas!" She exclaimed. "We got to get out of here!" She pulled his shirt and him towards the chairs.

"No, not that way."

She didn't listen, instead she saw something else, or rather someone in standing in the empty audience. Jack Driscoll.

"Look, it's Jack." She said breathless.

"Are you sure?" Englehorn asked dumbfounded.

"Yes, it's him, can't you see?" She replied frustrated.

Kong roared again. Both of them saw the great silver back from behind. The ape had stopped, he stood on the broken orchestra and stared at Jack. Aurora knew the milliseconds before Kong attacked what was about to happen. She had lost so many already, to loose Jack also was going to be to much. What would Ann say if he died?

"What are you doing?" Englehorn screamed as she spurted out in the audience side gangway. She didn't think. She never thought when she did stupid things, stupid and dangerous things.

"Hey, you big stupid ape!" She shouted and ran into the ape's eyesight. It turned to see her and forget about Jack for a minute. She waved with her arms. "Do you remember me? I shot you in the neck!" She danced around in the gangway and attracted as much attention from the ape as possible.

The ape tilted it's head confused. He didn't know what to do.

A crystal chandelier fell down on the stage, causing a sudden sound of splitting glass pieces. Kong jumped and tried to locate where the sound came from. Deciding that Aurora was the source of the scary sound, he reached out his arm and roamed the chairs to the floor.

"Watch out!"

She turned to the person who shouted, but was tackled to the floor by Englehorn just in time to avoid being smashed into the wall by the furious ape. Kong let them be and chased after Jack instead, leaving the whole theater in ruins.

Aurora stopped breathing, but not from fear, it was the fact that a grown person laid on top of her, stopping the airflow to her lungs. "Would you mind?" She asked breathless with the very last of her air.

He immediately got off her. Englehorn offered his hand to her.

"Thank you." She mumbled and got up. With wide eyes, she scanned the theater. It was in complete ruins. It looked like a tornado had stormed though the hall. As she brushed dust off her dress, she turned back to Englehorn. "You saved my life." She stated with a dead tone.

He nodded.

"Thank you." She said in the same dead tone. In this moment, standing in in front of him for the first time in months, she suddenly felt extremely embarrassed. Last time they met, she had rushed out of the room and left him.

"You look fine." Englehorn suddenly said, in a poor attempt to break the ice.

She couldn't help herself but snort. She didn't feel 'fine', she didn't look fine either, under the make up of course.

The awkward feeling between them changed drastically. Carl Denham had spotted them and in his madness he shouted. "Englehorn, it's all your fault! I shouldn't have hired you in the first place, you ruined it!" He stumbled across the stage towards them.

Englehorn turned to Carl. "What is wrong with you?" He asked silently, only Aurora heard him.

Carl didn't pay any attention to Englehorn anymore, instead he turned to Aurora. "And you!" He pointed theatrically at her. His whole acting reminded her of a dramatic play. "You think you are something, huh? But you aren't, you are nothing. How was I thinking when I agreed on letting you on the ship?"

His words somehow hurt her badly. It's like they cut through her whole body, leaving nothing than shreds of her. For the first time, Aurora had no witty answers. She had let her protecting walls fall and made herself vulnerable.

Carl stopped and stared into the ceiling. "Why am I surrounded by idiots?" He howled to no one in particular.

Englehorn tugged on Aurora's arm discretely. "Let's go." He whispered into her ear. The skin on her neck got goosebumps.

Aurora nodded and glanced quickly at the now dry sobbing Carl. She felt sorry for him.

Without hesitation, she followed Englehorn back to the hall of the theater. They climbed over piles of wood and stone. Kong had managed to mangle the whole interior of the theater. As they reached the front doors, they started to see the destruction on the street. Aurora gasped when she noticed a cab upside down. Kong was on the loose in the city. She bit her lower lip, not caring if it destroyed her lipstick, Kong loose in a city filled with humans was a bad sign.

"Did you notice that the first thing the ape did was to grab the blonde stand in." Englehorn suddenly said.

"What?"

"She's the reason he broke free." Englehorn clarified.

"So?"

"The ape is not stupid. It's looking for someone."

Aurora's jaw dropped when she realized what he was talking about. "Ann. He's looking for her."

"With his sense of smell, he might find her."

"No, it's impossible. Too many smells from different humans here." She said convincing. "But we have to find her and warn her. What if Kong finds her when she's walking home tonight?"

"Why is she walking around in the city at this hour?"

"She performing tonight." She checked her small wristwatch. "The play is almost over by now unless they called it off earlier. Come on, we have to run!"

He stopped her. "I don't think you should run into the cold night wearing only that dress."

She stopped and looked down on the thin silk dress. Damn! She really missed Jimmy's old clothes. "It's only a few blocks away. We can get there in three minutes, if we're fast." She offered her hand. "Come on!"

He hesitated.

She raised a brow. "I'll go without you if..."

"Fine! I'm coming with you." He interrupted.

Together they ran through the city. Blocks after blocks. The crisp night air was freezing but neither of them felt the cold. Aurora started to get really warm and her breathing more uncontrolled. She was a bit surprised by her own ability to run in heels. As she tried to catch her breath she eyed the theater. It was dark. Aurora checked her wristwatch, it was too late, the play was already over.

"Damn." Aurora cursed. She went up to the door and checked if it was open. It was.

She turned to Englehorn with a surprised look on her face.

**::::**

"She is not here." It was a true statement. Their search had lasted for a while now. The theater was surprisingly big. Aurora had let her frustration flow free. If you call push a chair over, 'letting the frustration flow free'. Englehorn had remained calm and cool.

"Which means, she's somewhere around in the city."

"Close to the ape."

"But where are we going to find the ape?"

A load growl was heard from distant. Englehorn looked at her. "Follow the growls and the human screams."

"Good idea." She agreed.

Their hands entwined. It just happened. Aurora felt an embarrassing blush appear on her face. Englehorn didn't notice, he was focused in finding the ape.

"This way." He instructed and led her into a smaller street.

Aurora noticed how the sun started to rise. She was freezing cold but didn't feel it. The coat she had 'borrowed' from the costume closet of the theater wasn't exactly made for cold weather.

"The morning is almost here." She commented.

"Strange, it's too early."

They came out on one of New York's bigger streets. A crowd of curious people had formed at the foot of the Empire state building. Suddenly she remembered that she had promised to take Jimmy to the Empire State Building. Well, that was before he had decided to disappear. Planes circled around in the air.

"What the hell is going on?" Englehorn asked out load. He pointed at military men building a temporary base of sand sacks.

"Do you see their weapons?"

He nodded. "They're planning on killing it!"

"Yes." She confirmed his statement.

A wave of a gasp, shared by the whole crowd was heard. People pointed up to the top of the skyscraper. "Look!" Someone screamed.

Both Englehorn and Aurora turned their attention towards the top of the building. The ape had climbed up to the top and now fought the planes. Aurora stopped breathing when she saw a small figure in white dress beside the ape.

"No!" She burst out. "That can't be her, no way!"

"What?"

"Use you eyes! It's Ann up there."

She grabbed his hand and made an attempt to rush into the skyscraper. He didn't move. She turned to him and eyed him questionably.

"What the?"

"Chastain... Aurora." He used her first name. "Whatever you're going to do, it's not going to work. You told me to use my eyes, now I'm telling you to use your own."

Aurora made an attempt to say something.

He ignored it. "Look around. There is a matter of time before the ape is falling down on the street, dead. The planes will bring him down and if they fail, the military men here will make sure he will take his last breath. There is nothing you can do. I'm not going to get involved in this, for certain"

"But Ann?"

"She made a choice. It was her decision." He told her.

She tried to hid her sudden tears. "Why did you follow me all the way here, then? If you would just abandon me on the finishing line?"

His eyes betrayed him.

She sniffed and her dry tears gave her a headache. "So what? Am I just going to stand here and watch my friend die?"

"No, you don't. You're free to go. But I will not follow you."

She bit her lip. "I don't want to go alone." She whispered. For the past ten years, she had been alone. She was sick and tired of it. For the first time in her life, she wanted someone by her side.

Arms were wrapped around her. She rested her head on his shoulder. His navy coat smelled like the sea. Saltwater. She knew her fingers smelled like ink. A strange combination. None of them spoke. The buzz from the situation around them died down. Words couldn't describe what happened. For a second Aurora realized how out of character she acted. The old Aurora would simply ignore Englehorn and rush into the building. This Aurora stayed with him. Because she allowed herself to be selfish.

He released his hold. She looked up. The first sunshine of the day hit them and gave her auburn hair a shine of red. He had lovely eyes. She thought. How could she ever had thought they were cold?

He leaned in. She did as well. Both closed their eyes and their lips met. It was so natural. Like it was meant to be.

A large _thump!_ Was heard. Something massive had landed on the street only a few ten meters away from them. They broke free from each others grip. Photographers crowded around the ape and snapped pictures like maniacs. Ann and Jack burst out from the main entrance. Aurora thanked her lucky star for the fact that Ann was still alive and healthy, physically.

The ape was indeed dead. Thomas' prediction had been accurate. It had been a matter of time. It was over... for the ape. Although not for Aurora and Thomas... their story had just started. Aurora hoped it would continue like this, somewhat calm.

"Aurora, will you..?"

"No!" She interrupted him. She was still very sure of her mind. No marria...

"I was just going to ask you to step off my foot."

She looked down. He was right. She was standing on his foot. "Oops, sorry." She said and stepped off.

He chuckled.

She smiled too. He had a beautiful smile, she noticed. It had the ability to lit up her world. And the world knew she needed it now.

The End.

**Last chapter of this story! Drop a review if you like, it will probably make my day :) It was really amazing to write this story, it was so fun. Thank you for reading!**

**/Verozexistente**


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